III. Robust Leadership and Strong Governance
China is a huge country with a large population and complex national conditions. In order to achieve independence, development, and prosperity it must have robust and decisive leadership. It is the CPC’s solidarity and unity, its firm leadership, and its strong governance capability that have rallied and united hundreds of millions of the Chinese people and overcome a multitude of difficulties and crises.
1. A Strong Central Committee
The CPC is a mature Marxist political party organized in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism13. Upholding the authority of the Central Committee and its centralized leadership has always been one of the Party’s fundamental operational principles. Democratic centralism involves Party members deferring to Party organizations, the minority deferring to the majority, lower-level Party organizations deferring to higher-level organizations, and the whole Party deferring to the Central Committee. This and upholding the authority of the Central Committee and its centralized leadership are strengths the Party has built from valuable experience gained during revolution, reconstruction and reform.
Upholding the Central Committee’s authority and its centralized leadership has led to smooth and steady progress in China, and ensures the CPC’s position as the governing party and the country’s long-term stability.
The first generation of the CPC central collective leadership with Mao Zedong at the core united the whole Party and the people and led them on the revolutionary path, using rural areas to encircle the cities and seizing state power with military force. It was under its centralized leadership that the Party and the people completed the New Democratic Revolution, founded the People’s Republic of China, succeeded in socialist revolution, established socialism as the country’s basic system, and advanced socialist development. All of this led to success in the broadest and most profound social transformation in the history of the Chinese nation. It also laid down the political and institutional groundwork for all future progress and provided invaluable experience, a theoretical base, and the material conditions for Chinese socialism in the new historical period.
After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, the second generation of the Party’s central collective leadership with Deng Xiaoping at the core led the Party and the people in a historic shift of focus to economic development and reform and opening up. Based on its keen understanding of the essence of socialism, the Party established its basic line for the primary stage of socialism, made it clear that China must define its own approach in building socialism, and provided answers to a series of basic questions. This marked the creation of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
After the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee in 1989, the third generation of the Party’s central collective leadership with Jiang Zemin at the core led the Party and the people in defending socialism with Chinese characteristics in a complex domestic and international situation and in the face of serious setbacks experienced by socialism worldwide. It established the objectives and framework of reform for developing the socialist market economy, and put in place basic economic and distribution systems in the primary stage of socialism, advancing Chinese socialism into the 21st century.
After the 16th CPC National Congress in 2002, the Central Committee with Hu Jintao as general secretary led the Party and the people in promoting innovation in theory, practice, and systems in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, with a focus on people-centered, all-round, coordinated, and sustainable development, and upholding and building socialism with Chinese characteristics, at a new historical point.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core has led the Party and the people in pursuing a great struggle, a great project, a great cause, and a great dream, upholding and improving the Party’s overall leadership, and implementing the Five-sphere Integrated Plan and the Four-pronged Comprehensive Strategy. The Party has made greater efforts to improve Chinese socialism,
