XVI. Strengthening and Improving the Party's Leadership in the Course of Comprehensively Deepening the Reform

To deepen reform comprehensively, we must enhance and improve the Party's leadership, ensure that the Party plays its role as the leadership core in exercising overall leadership and coordinating all efforts, build the Party into an innovative, service-oriented and learning Marxist governing party, and improve the Party's art of leadership and governance to ensure the victory of our reform.

58. All Party members should align their thinking and action with the decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee for deepening reform comprehensively; properly handle the relationships between the central authority and local governments, between the overall situation and situations of localities, between immediate interests and long-term needs; correctly understand the adjustment of interest patterns; fully promote intra-Party democracy; resolutely uphold the authority of the Party Central Committee; ensure that the decisions of the Party Central Committee are carried out effectively; and perseveringly implement the Party Central Committee's reform decisions and plans. The Party Central Committee has set up the Leading Group for Deepening Reform Comprehensively to be in charge of designing reform on an overall basis, arranging and coordinating reforms of different sectors, pushing forward reforms as a whole and supervising the implementation of reform plans. The Party committees at all levels should perform their duty of leadership in the reform, improve the scientific and democratic decision-making mechanism, and implement the reform measures by addressing major problems. We will strengthen the building of leading groups at all levels, improve the system so that officials can receive the necessary education and training and be tempered in practice, and enhance leading groups' and leading officials' capability in pushing forward reform. We will promote community-level Party building, improve the network of community-level Party organizations, bring into full play the role of community-level Party organizations in leading the Party members to devote themselves to reform. All Party members are encouraged to work hard on their posts to do their bit for deepening the reform comprehensively.

59. Deepening reform comprehensively requires forceful organizational and personnel support. We should adhere to the principle of the Party supervising the performance of officials, deepen reform of the system for the management of officials and personnel, build an effective, easy and practicable mechanism for the selection and appointment of officials, so that officials with outstanding performance in all respects come to the fore. We should ensure the Party organizations' leadership and oversight in the selection and appointment of officials. We will increase the authority and responsibilities of the Party committees (leading Party members' groups), leading officials in charge and organization departments in selecting, appointing and evaluating officials, reform and improve the officials' performance evaluation system, and improve the method of selecting officials competitively. We will improve the mechanism for training and selecting outstanding young officials, selectively use the methods of election and direct appointment in selecting officials, resolutely correct the practice of selecting officials merely by their votes or grades. We must put officials of all ages to the best use, and select those who are honest and upright, committed to our cause, diligent and pragmatic in serving the people, and not afraid of taking on responsibilities.

We will not select officials just from within the same department or sector, but will widen the vision and channel of selecting and appointing officials, and promote the cross-sectoral exchange of officials. We should get rid of the “official rank standard,” encourage officials to be adaptive to promotion and demotion, appointment and resignation or retirement. We will implement a leading officials' accountability system, and place the ranks of officials under strict management. We will deepen the reform of civil servants based on the classification of their positions and duties, promote a system in which civil servants' positions match their rankings, and their rankings match their salary. We will speed up the establishment of a management system for technological professionals, administrative law enforcers and other government functionaries. We will improve the employment system of community-level civil servants, and appropriately lower the threshold for their employment in remote areas or areas with poor conditions.

We will create the best conditions to attract talent from all over the world. We will remove institutional and other barriers to smooth the channels for each individual to exercise to the full his or her potential and create space for outstanding individuals to put their talent to the best use. We will make policies and rules that allow the smooth flow of talent in Party and government departments, enterprises and public institutions, and in every field of society. We will improve the incentive mechanism for people of talent to move to community-level positions and areas and posts with poor conditions, and to the frontlines of research and production. We should form an internationally competitive personnel system, improve the personnel assessment mechanism, increase the openness of personnel policies, and attract high-caliber personnel from overseas to start up business and pursue their careers in China.

60. The people are the mainstay of reform. We should uphold the Party's mass line, establish a social participation mechanism, fully give rein to the people's enthusiasm, initiative and creativity, and bring into full play the role of people's organizations such as trade unions, the Chinese Communist Youth League and women's federations to act in concert for advancing reform. We will encourage local governments, community-level organizations and the general public to make bold explorations, and strengthen pilot programs of important reforms, summarize experience in a timely manner, be tolerant to errors in the course of reform, enhance publicity and opinion guidance, and create a sound social environment for deepening reform comprehensively. All Party members should rally closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary, forge ahead with determination to tackle difficult problems, usher in a new chapter of the great cause of reform and opening up, strive to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, continue to win new victories for socialism with Chinese characteristics, and realize the Chinese dream of the great revival of the Chinese nation!