The code of conduct that brought transformative changes

On Oct. 25, three days after the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded its monumental 20th National Congress, the new Party leadership -- the 24-member Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee -- convened their first meeting in Beijing.

Among the documents deliberated at the meeting were a set of detailed rules for implementing the "eight-point decision on improving conduct."

Improving Party conduct is always an ongoing task to which there is no end, according to the official readout of the meeting, which urged Political Bureau members to take the lead in faithfully implementing the "eight-point decision."

The eight-point decision was first made public on Dec. 4, 2012 after a Political Bureau meeting, convened days after Xi Jinping took the helm of the Party. Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, led the efforts to formulate the rules, which aim to improve the Party's style of work and maintain its close ties with the people.

The eight-point decision, spelled out in just over 600 Chinese characters, targets pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance, and seeks to rein in privilege-seeking attitudes and behavior.

"If misconduct is not corrected but allowed to run rampant, it will build an invisible wall between our Party and the people," Xi has warned.

Xi has ordered unswerving efforts to implement the spirit of the eight-point decision, as Party conduct has "a direct impact on its prospects of winning or losing public support, and indeed on the very survival or extinction of the Party and the state."

After 10 years of enforcement, the rules have improved the political environment in the Party and won public support. The CPC Central Committee has pledged to "steadfastly implement" the eight-point decision.

SETTING AN EXAMPLE

At the 2012 Political Bureau meeting, Xi said efforts to improve conduct and build integrity must start with central Party leaders.

In the past decade, Xi made over 100 inspection trips across China. During all those trips Xi had kept things simple in terms of transport, accommodations, and other arrangements.

During his first inspection trip after being elected the Party chief, Xi went to the southern Guangdong Province, where the roads his fleet passed were not cleared or blocked. While visiting an earthquake-hit area in the southwestern Sichuan Province in 2013, Xi slept in a makeshift house. While convening a military meeting in Gutian of southeastern Fujian Province in 2014, he had the same simple lunch as grassroots delegates.

Other members of the Political Bureau have also rigorously abided by the frugality code. Important meetings held by the central authorities normally lasted for less than one and a half days, with some meetings held in the form of teleconferences or via video link. Government paperwork has been significantly reduced, and arrangements for foreign visits by leaders have been simplified.

The Political Bureau now holds meetings every year to hear reports on the implementation of the eight-point decision and to engage in criticism and self-criticism on this subject.

FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES

Central and local authorities have rolled out detailed regulations and mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the eight-point decision, bringing about sweeping changes in both officialdom and society over the past decade.

Disciplinary watchdogs of various levels keep a close eye on breaches of the frugality rules, especially during holidays that usually see a rise in sending gifts and holding banquets and ceremonies. Malfeasants would be named and shamed. Since September 2013, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision have published their monthly report on the punishment of officials flouting the frugality rules for 110 months in a row.

In October alone, a total of 7,558 cases were investigated and 11,050 violators were punished.

Official meetings, documents, and examinations have been drastically cut down. Data showed that between 2018 and the end of 2021, documents issued by central and state organs and provincial-level governments were more than halved, the number of meetings dropped by over 65 percent, and inspections and examinations plunged by over 90 percent.

Data from a public opinion poll conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2022 showed that 95.7 percent of the Chinese lauded the implementation of the eight-point decision spearheaded by the CPC Central Committee.

On Oct. 16, in his report delivered to the 20th CPC National Congress, Xi said that the Party will steadfastly implement the eight-point decision, continue to tackle pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance, with a focus on the first two, and that it will firmly root out privilege-seeking mindsets and behavior.

On Oct. 27, just days after the conclusion of the congress, Xi led other newly-elected members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on a trip to Yan'an, an old revolutionary base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

During the trip, Xi called on all Party members to learn from the revolutionaries and Chinese Communists of the older generation, advance the Party's self-reform with courage, resolutely exercise full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, and always maintain the Party's advanced nature and integrity.