The Theoretical Connotation of the Important Proposition of "Self-revolution"

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has creatively put forward the important proposition of "the party's self-revolution. In October 2022, the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China highlighted the "self-revolution" and pointed out that "the party's self-revolution is always on the road". Clarifying the ideological connotation of "the party's self-revolution" and its relationship with "party building" and "comprehensive and strict governance of the party" will help to understand this important proposition more deeply in theory and promote it more deeply in practice. The new great project of party building in the new era.

　　The Basic Connotation of "the Party's Self-revolution"

The important proposition of "the party's self-revolution" was gradually put forward by the Chinese Communists with Comrade Xi Jinping as the main representative in the process of deepening the comprehensive and strict governance of the party. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the term "self-revolution" was first used to describe the comprehensive deepening of reform. In July 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping called on the whole party to "solve various problems within the party with the political courage of self-revolution" at the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and formally applied the concept of "self-revolution" to the field of party building. Since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has more systematically explained the ideological connotation of "the party's self-revolution. In January 2022, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection formally put forward the "strategic thought of the party's self revolution". In October 2022, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China once again emphasized the "strategic thinking of the party's self-revolution" and made important strategic arrangements for the party to further promote self-revolution on its new journey.

With regard to the main goal of "the party's self-revolution," General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "in the new era, our party must use the party's self-revolution to promote the great social revolution carried out by the party under the leadership of the people." build the party into a Marxist ruling party that is always at the forefront of the times, wholeheartedly supported by the people, has the courage to self-revolution, can withstand all kinds of storms and waves, and is vigorous, this is not only the objective requirement for our party to lead the people to carry out the great social revolution, but also the inherent need for our party to build and develop as a Marxist party ". The establishment of this goal has pointed out the way forward and provided inexhaustible impetus for the party to further promote self-revolution in the new era. Regarding the main objects, General Secretary Xi Jinping discussed from many angles. For example, from the perspective of time, it is proposed that the party faces long-term and complex problems such as the "four major tests" and "four major risks", as well as urgent problems such as "impure ideology, impure politics, impure organization, and impure style"; Proceeding from the party's own characteristics, put forward the "unique problems of the big party"; proceeding from different levels of party building, it puts forward the problems such as the weakening of the party's leadership, the lack of party building and the ineffective management of the party. This is the main problem that the "Party's self-revolution" is aimed. With regard to the subject of action, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "our party has always maintained the spirit of self-revolution, maintained the courage to admit and correct mistakes, picked up a scalpel again and again to remove its own diseases, and solved its own problems again and again on its own". The essential attribute of the proletarian party determines that the Communist Party of China can carry out self-revolution, and its main body can only be itself. Regarding the basic path, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "deeply understand the importance and urgency of enhancing self-purification, self-improvement, self-innovation, and self-improvement capabilities". The "four selves" are the four important links that the party's self-revolution must go through. It forms a virtuous circle in which the party relies on its own strength to discover problems, correct deviations, promote innovation, and achieve overall improvement in governance capabilities. It is the basic path of self-revolution. With regard to spiritual temperament, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the "spirit of self-revolution". The Party's self-revolution is not only a practical action, but also a spiritual force, which is the spirit of self-revolution.

"The party's self-revolution" is the Communist Party of China in order to build itself into a Marxist ruling party that is always at the forefront of the times, wholeheartedly supported by the people, has the courage to self-revolution, can withstand the tests of various storms, and is vigorous. The problem is the starting point, consciously and continuously with the courage and determination of the blade inward, the process of self-purification, self-improvement, self-innovation, and self-improvement.

　"The Party's Self-revolution" and "Party Building"

"The party's self-revolution" and "party building" are both concepts often used by the Communist Party of China in the new era when expounding the issue of self-construction, and their ideological connotations have obvious similarities. For example, the main goals of "the party's self-revolution" and "party building" are to build a strong Marxist ruling party, and the main body of action is the Communist Party of China. The overall layout covers the party's political construction, ideological construction, organizational construction, and work style. Construction, discipline construction, system construction and anti-corruption struggle, the strategic policy is to administer the party strictly in an all-round way.

The difference in ideological connotation between the two is mainly reflected in the four aspects of ideological basis, conceptual scope, basic logic and spiritual implication.

From the perspective of ideological basis, "party building" takes "establishment" as the ideological basis and emphasizes positive guidance and construction towards a certain goal. "Self-revolution" takes "breaking" as the ideological basis and emphasizes going to the outstanding problems existing in the party. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, "self-revolution itself is facing the problem, and taboo is the natural enemy of self-revolution". Compared with "party building", "self-revolution" takes "breaking" as the ideological basis, emphasizes discovering problems, facing problems squarely, identifying problems, and solving problems, which highlights the problem orientation and cutting in with "breaking.

From the perspective of conceptual scope, in the party's discourse system, party leadership and party building are two relatively independent parts. For example, in the main content of Xi Jinping's thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, that is, in the "ten clear", "fourteen persistence" and "thirteen achievements", party leadership and party building are regarded as Different contents are discussed separately. "The party's self-revolution" integrates the party's leadership and party building, and realizes the organic unity of the two. Among them, party building is the starting point of "self-revolution". "Self-revolution" starts with serious problems and stubborn diseases in the field of party building, and launches a series of activities around solving problems. The party's leadership is the foothold of "self-revolution". The direct purpose of the party's self-revolution is to consolidate its long-term ruling position and further uphold and improve the party's leadership. Compared with "party building", "self-revolution" has a richer ideological meaning, reflecting the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese Communist Party's self-construction in the new era.

From the basic logic point of view, party building mainly emphasizes horizontal layout, that is, the overall layout of party building including various specific tasks, and generally does not emphasize vertical procedural issues. In contrast, the "party's self-revolution" has added a procedural link from "breaking" to "establishing" on the basis of taking the various tasks of party building as the horizontal layout, that is, self-purification, self-improvement, and self-innovation., The vertical process of self-improvement has formed a logical composition different from party building. Moreover, party building mainly focuses on the internal relationship between the various tasks in the overall layout, emphasizing the division of tasks that are both interconnected and hierarchical, such as the party's political construction is the command and ideological construction is the basic construction. Compared with "party building", the "four selves" endow the "party's self-revolution" with a distinct procedural logic, which fully embodies the remarkable characteristics of "breaking and establishing" and "breaking and establishing" and the dynamic characteristics of gradual rise.

In terms of spiritual implications, "party building" generally does not directly refer to a certain spirit. Although the party has formed many important spirits in the process of self-building, we generally do not use the concept of "party building spirit. The "self-revolution" directly points to the "self-revolutionary spirit" and realizes the high unity of practice and spirit. Therefore, compared with "party building", "self-revolution" points more clearly to the unique spiritual quality of the Communist Party of China.

Compared with "party building", the concept of "self-revolution" has a more prominent problem orientation, richer ideological connotation, more distinct dynamic characteristics, and stronger spiritual strength. it can better reveal the pioneering achievements made by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core in the great practice of administering the party strictly in an all-round way and the fresh experience of managing the party in the new era.

　"The Party's Self-revolution" and "Strictly Administering the Party in an All-round way"

As two new concepts formed in the new era, there are both connections and differences between "the party's self-revolution" and "comprehensive and strict governance of the party.

From a practical perspective, "administering the party strictly in an all-round way" is a concrete manifestation of the "party's self-revolution" in the new era, showing the distinctive characteristics and characteristics of the party's self-revolution in the new era. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, "administering the party strictly in an all-round way is the great practice of the party's self-revolution in the new era". In this dimension, the goals, objects, subjects, paths and overall layout of "the party's self-revolution" and "comprehensive and strict governance of the party" are the same, and the two are completely consistent. The transformative practice, breakthrough progress and landmark achievements of "administering the party strictly in an all-round way" in the new era highlight the new realm opened up by the "party's self-revolution" under the conditions of the new era.

From the perspective of historical dimension and theoretical dimension, there are some differences between them. From a historical perspective, the "Party's self-revolution" has long-term characteristics, running through the history of the party for a hundred years. In contrast, "administering the party strictly in an all-round way" has a distinct nature of the times and is gradually formed in the new era, which only refers to the exploration of self-construction by the Chinese Communists in this period. "The Party's self-revolution" has a longer time frame than "administering the Party strictly in an all-round way. From a theoretical perspective, "the party's self-revolution" is a general proposition on the issue of self-construction raised by the Communist Party of China. And "administering the party strictly in an all-round way" is the strategic policy of "the party's self-revolution" and "party building. In this regard, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly discussed in theory. For example, at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he put forward the general requirements for party building in the new era. Among them, "insisting that the party should manage the party and administer the party strictly in an all-round way" is the strategic policy of party building. For another example, in January 2022, at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the party, he elaborated on the party's self-revolution strategic thinking, and took "insisting that the party must manage the party and administer the party strictly" as the party's self-revolution. Strategic policy.

It is precisely because "the party's self-revolution" has different ideological connotations from "party building" and "comprehensive and strict governance of the party" that the 20th National Congress of the party will highlight the issue of "self-revolution" and use "the party's self-revolution" "The strategic thinking of" "to summarize the theoretical achievements of the party in self-construction in the new era.

The proposal of "the party's self-revolution" has promoted the enrichment and development of Marxist party theory. First, in the history of the development of Marxist party theory, the important concept of "self-revolution" was put forward and explained by the Chinese Communists with Comrade Xi Jinping as the main representative. The introduction of this concept profoundly reveals the essential requirements of Marxist political parties and greatly enriches and develops the theory of Marxist political parties. Second, it creatively clarifies that the Communist Party of China, as the ruling party of Marxism, has found the second answer to the historical cycle rate of self-revolution. On the basis of Mao Zedong's "people's supervision", the answer that the ruling party jumped out of the historical cycle rate of chaos and prosperity, in the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core gave the second answer, which is "self-revolution". This answer profoundly summarizes the important experience of the century-old party in solving its own problems under the conditions of long-term governance, and finds a new way for the Marxist ruling party to jump out of the historical cycle of the rise and fall of chaos, and develops the Marxist regularity of the construction of the ruling party. understanding. Third, the formation of a series of new assertions, new formulation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has formed a series of new expressions around "the party's self-revolution. For example, creatively put forward the "original mission of the party", profoundly expounded the key issues of what a Marxist party is and what it wants to do, deepened the understanding of the nature and purpose of a Marxist party, put forward the "overall leadership of the party", raised the issue of party leadership to the height of the essence of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and developed the leadership theory of the Marxist party. Put forward "administering the party strictly in an all-round way", it clarifies the strategic policy of governing the party in the new era, enriches the Marxist understanding of the law of governing the party, puts forward and explains the spirit of self-revolution, provides rich spiritual nourishment for the road of strengthening the party in the new era, and enriches the spiritual wealth of Marxist political parties. These new ideas, new assertions and new formulation have greatly enriched and developed the Marxist theory of political parties.

The successful practice of the Chinese Communist Party's self-revolution also provides an important reference for the ruling parties in the world to deal with the test of governance. The ruling parties in the world, whether they are Marxist ruling parties or non-Marxist ruling parties, are facing the worldwide problem of self-restraint of the ruling party. The Marxist ruling parties in some socialist countries represented by the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have tried to start with the self-restraint of the ruling party and explore and solve the long-term governance problem of the Marxist ruling party. Unfortunately, the ruling parties in these countries have not been able to find a successful path for the Marxist ruling party to self-discipline. In contrast, the mainstream political theory in western countries arbitrarily denies the possibility of self-restraint of the ruling party, emphasizes the mutual restriction of political parties, and believes that one party can only be restricted by another party. It can be said that before the Communist Party of China, neither the Marxist ruling party nor the non-Marxist ruling party has been able to solve the problem of self-discipline of the ruling party. The Marxist ruling party opened up by the Communist Party of China relies on the successful path of self-revolution to jump out of the historical cycle rate, and effectively solves the worldwide problem of self-restraint of the ruling party. It not only provides an important reference for the Marxist ruling party in socialist countries to carry out self-construction in accordance with its own reality, but also effectively counterattacks the doubts of Western countries on the self-restraint of the Marxist ruling party. It provides an important reference for the non-Marxist ruling party governance and the test.

[This article is the phased achievement of the major project of the National Social Science Foundation of China, "Research on the Theme of the Centennial History of the Communist Party of China" (21 & ZD026)]]

(The author is an associate professor at the School of Communist Party History and Party Building, Renmin University of China; a researcher at the Institute of Communist Party History and Party Building)