China's CPC releases revised Party Constitution: Salient Features
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BEIJING: The Communist Party of China (CPC) has released its revised Constitution in which "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" was enshrined.
The revised Party Constitution was approved at the 19th CPC National Congress, according to Global Times on Monday.As many as 107 revisions were made in the updated Constitution based on 2,165 suggestions collected from various regions and departments.
Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, had chaired six meetings to deliberate on the revisions to the Party Constitution since June.The Constitution juxtaposes Xi's thought with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of the Three Represents and Scientific Outlook on Development.
"Xi's thought is the latest achievement and new height of Marxism practice. Writing it into the Constitution shows the authority of Xi's thought, which demands the Party to obey and promote the development of the theory," Cai Zhiqiang, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee said.
A wide range of new ideas, thinking and strategies put forward by the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core have been added to the Constitution, including giving play to the decisive role of market forces in resource allocation, advancing supply-side structural reform and enhancing the country's cultural soft power.
Congress delegates also agreed to write the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics into the Party Constitution, along with its path, theory and system.In addition, the amendment includes an assessment of the change in the "principal contradiction" facing Chinese society.
The CPC says the central contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved from "the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and backward social production" to "unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life.
"The new Constitution also affirmed that the Party must firmly exercise self-supervision and practice strict self-governance. It called for enhancing the Party's political building as the overarching principle and to make comprehensive efforts to ensure that the Party's political work is stressed, ideology is strengthened, organizations are consolidated, conduct is improved, discipline is maintained, institutional development is always emphasized, and the fight against corruption keeps going.
Many new ideas placed into the Constitution have been proved in the past five years and show people's expectations for the future, Cai said.The CPC Constitution was first unveiled at the 2nd CPC National Congress held in 1922. At the 7th CPC National Congress in 1945, Mao Zedong Thought was established as the CPC's guiding ideology.
The current version of the Constitution was endorsed at the 12th CPC National Congress in 1982, which corrected "leftist" mistakes and set economic construction for socialist modernization as the focus of the Party's work.The Party Constitution was subsequently amended at every CPC national congress since the 13th CPC National Congress in 1987.
In 1997, Deng Xiaoping Theory was established as the CPC's guiding theory. In 2002, the Theory of Three Represents was included as part of the Party's guide for action and in 2007, the Scientific Outlook on Development was added into the Constitution.
"Revising the constitution is a specific part of the CPC's good tradition in inheriting Marxism and keeping pace with the times," Xin Xiangyang, a research fellow on Marxism at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.The political consensus of the revised Constitution could help maintain the stability of the Party and strengthen unity, Xin noted.
