How was the first disciplinary regulation introduced?

On October 1, 2018, the newly revised Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of the Communist Party of China came into effect. Tracing back to the source, the "Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of the Communist Party of China (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "First Regulations") issued in February 1997 is its original version. As a Marxist political party known for its strict discipline, why did it not formulate the first disciplinary regulations until 1997? It lasted nine years and changed its draft 15 times. What kind of hardships and twists and turns did it go through? What kind of brand of the times and historical significance did it have?

"Under the new historical conditions, we will find a new way to build the party without engaging in political movements, but relying on reform and system construction"

After the end of the "Cultural Revolution", the senior leaders of the party deeply realized that the lack of law and discipline was an important reason for the occurrence of unjust, false and wrong cases before. Deng Xiaoping hit the nail on the head and pointed out: "We have actually had no law and nothing to follow for many years." After learning from the bitter experience, the system building of the party has gradually become the general consensus of the whole party. By 1987, the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward: "under the new historical conditions, we should take a new way of relying on reform and system construction instead of political movement in Party building." It was under this ideological guidance that the first regulations were drafted in 1988.

The implementation of the policy of opening to the outside world has introduced advanced Western technology and management experience, but some decadent ideas and cultures have also entered China. At that time, there was an image saying in the society: opening to the outside world was like opening a window, fresh air came in, and mosquitoes and flies also came in. At the same time, with the development of commodity economy, the principle of commodity trading has been infiltrated into other areas. What is particularly worrying both inside and outside the party is the spread of extravagance and waste, abuse of power for personal gain, corruption and bribery. Qiao Shi, then secretary of the Central Commission for discipline Inspection, pointed out sharply that "in a large number of party organizations and party members, including some leading organs, the phenomenon of weak sense of discipline and lax discipline is still relatively common, and some are quite serious." and listed seven specific manifestations. In this regard, Deng Xiaoping bitterly pointed out: if the atmosphere goes bad, what is the significance of economic success? On the other hand, it will deteriorate, which in turn will affect the deterioration of the entire economy, and a world of corruption, theft and bribery will be formed as it develops. Therefore, the development of a comprehensive system of disciplinary regulations more and more urgent.

After the 13th CPC National Congress, in preparation for the second plenary session, the Central Commission for discipline Inspection organized an investigation team to listen to the opinions of discipline inspection commissions at all levels. At that time, it was generally reflected from the bottom up that there was too little legislation within the party. Some people think that at that time, the discipline inspection department used "empirical law", "comparative law", "customary law", "climate law" and "power law". As the name implies, "empirical law", "comparative law" and "customary law" are to compare and enforce the law according to the level of personal policy and work experience. "Climate law" refers to being strict in the wind, such as strict, heavy and quick disposal during the crackdown. "Power Law" refers to the use of power to interfere with the handling of cases. As a result, different departments in different regions, the same case treatment disparity. Discipline inspection commissions at all levels have said that no matter how difficult it is, a unified national discipline standard should be established. According to these circumstances, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection put forward in the work arrangement of discipline inspection in 1987: "studying and formulating discipline standards and discipline inspection regulations is an important work in system construction." In 1988, in the main points of its work, it was proposed to start a "national quantitative discipline standard". The Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection decided to form a drafting group for the first regulation in March 1988 to begin the drafting work.

After nine years and 15 drafts, the first regulation was finally issued in 1997.

The drafting of the first regulation is highly political and has no precedent to follow. It is conceivable that the difficulty is great. The drafting group has made great efforts to develop a regulation that will stand up to the test.

One is full investigation and research. At the beginning of its work, the drafting group formed several groups to conduct investigations and studies in relevant provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, and held symposiums in Beidaihe, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, and other places to conduct in-depth discussions on key core issues.

The second is to fully absorb the experience of exploration in various places. The formulation of the first regulations referred to the local party discipline regulations and relevant regulations as far as possible. Wang Haiyu, then director of the trial office of the Kuancheng County Commission for Discipline Inspection in Hebei Province, recalled that when he had just arrived at the county Commission for Discipline Inspection and studied the case of a township head buying gold, some members of the Standing Committee proposed dismissal, some proposed dismissal, and some proposed warning. Such a big difference, he believes that it is the lack of a unified standard of measurement and discipline, so he organized the formulation of the Kuancheng Commission for Discipline Inspection and sent it to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection encouraged, "As a county-level discipline inspection commission, it is very valuable to come up with such a regulation, and we hope to actively practice it and continuously improve it. This regulation is for reference in the formulation of the Party's disciplinary regulations."

third, extensively soliciting opinions from party and government organs in various localities. The drafting of the first regulations is in a period of deepening reform and opening up, and various policies and regulations are still being improved. In addition, the drafting time span is long, the practice is constantly developing, and people's ideas are also constantly improving. The drafting group first solicits opinions, then revises them and then solicits opinions.

The fourth is to extensively absorb all forces. The staff involved in the drafting are very extensive, including not only party committees at all levels and heads of party work departments, but also ordinary party members on all fronts, as well as research experts in related fields, which mobilized the enthusiasm of all parties as much as possible.

After drawing up the outline of the first regulation, the drafting group promptly sent it to all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and relevant ministries and commissions of the Central Committee for comments. Since then, nine drafts of the second and 3. 5. 6. have been issued for comments, and a forum has been held to discuss and revise them. After the ninth draft was issued, many opinions, suggestions and materials were received one after another. The drafting group revised six more drafts until the fifteenth draft was finalized. In this way, after nine years and 15 drafts, the first regulation finally came out of the cocoon and was issued by the CPC Central Committee on February 27, 1997 for trial implementation.

A pioneering disciplinary code with a distinctive brand of the times and far-reaching historical significance

The first Ordinance consists of three parts: general provisions, sub-provisions and supplementary provisions, with a total of 13 chapters and 172 articles. In contrast, it is not difficult to find that the first regulation has basically laid the framework of previous regulations. It can be seen that it is a party discipline law that can stand the test of practice and history. Its content is comprehensive, distinctive, and has strong characteristics of the times.

First, it fully demonstrates our Party's fine tradition of stressing politics with a clear-cut stand. This can be reflected in the overall concept of one guiding ideology, two basic bases and three theoretical fulcrums in the first regulation. Among them, "a guiding ideology" is the first sentence at the beginning: "the regulations on disciplinary actions of the Communist Party of China take Marxism Leninism, Mao Zedong thought and Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics as the guiding ideology." Among the seven types of errors described in the first regulation, political errors, I .e., violations of political discipline, are at the top of the list.

The second is to focus on coordination with the law. The Constitution and the law are the basis for the formulation of the first regulations. Most of the provisions on disciplinary violations in the first regulations directly refer to the criminal law and other relevant provisions. At that time, there was a special situation: in the process of drafting the first regulations, the criminal law was being revised. After the implementation of the first regulation, there may be a discrepancy with the new criminal law, so how should it be resolved? The drafting group has a clear principle: where there is a discrepancy, refer to the criminal law.

The third is to highlight party discipline in the economic field. At the beginning of reform and opening up, a considerable number of cadres were corrupted because they could not withstand the temptation of interests. In 1982, Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "The number of people involved in economic crimes is not a small number, but a large number." Four years later, he again called for the urgent handling of economic crime cases. By the late 1980 s and early 1990 s, a small number of leading cadres used their power for personal gain to cause strong dissatisfaction among the people and became a prominent political and social problem. It became an urgent need to deal with economic and disciplinary cadres in accordance with regulations and laws. Therefore, the number of items stipulated in the first regulation on the punishment of economic violations is as much as four times that of organization and personnel violations.

The first regulation is a milestone in the process of the party's discipline construction. Before the promulgation of the first regulations, the "Several Guidelines on Political Life within the Party" passed in 1980, as a specific supplement to the party constitution, is a relatively comprehensive and systematic party regulation, but the party constitution and guidelines cannot make detailed regulations on discipline inspection. The promulgation of the first regulations put an end to the state of no discipline to follow in the past, and marked that the party's disciplinary norms and disciplinary actions have entered a scientific and standardized stage. The first regulation also realizes the discipline construction to keep pace with the times. It is not only the absorption of historical experience and lessons, but also the summary of fresh experience in practice. It is problem-oriented and aims to meet the needs of practice, so as to realize the system's keeping pace with the times. For example, in view of the economic violations that have occurred and may occur under the market economy system, a "negative list" is drawn up for the behavior of party members ". After the promulgation of the first regulation, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of supervision used television and other means to deepen the education of Party members, and shot a series of TV films about the first regulation, which played a role of "universal discipline" among Party members and cadres to a certain extent.
 

Source: People's Daily Online