context: The CPC introduced its eight-point regulation for strengthening Party discipline in December 2012. These rules chiefly address formalism, bureaucracy and lavish habits among CPC officials. In March 2025, the CPC Central Committee announced plans for renewed eight-point regulation educational drives. The following is a commentary put forward by the CPC Central Organisation Department to warn units of the need to execute the campaign thoroughly.
The CPC Central Committee has decided to carry out a Party-wide campaign on studying the eight-point regulation after the end of the 2025 two sessions, explains the Central Organisation Department. The initiative is central to this year’s Party building work—Xi Jinping 习近平 personally defined the theme of the campaign and issued guidance.
Party units at all levels must
- recognise the significance of this education initiative
- guide Party members to understand how to reengineer work culture
- study the original texts closely and grasp underlying principles
- internalise ideas into thought and practice
Erosion of Party conduct directly impacts popular support, affecting the Party’s survival. Every Party member and cadre must always measure themselves by the yardstick of Party spirit. Party spirit, conduct and discipline are organically connected
- spirit: foundation
- conduct: manifestation
- discipline: safeguard
Rolling out the eight-point regulation is merely the starting point for improving Party conduct. If ten years is not enough, then twenty; if twenty is not enough, then thirty—until a true cultural shift is achieved.
Efforts must be made to both correct undesirable culture and foster new ones, promoting pragmatism, integrity, and frugality and tackling formalism to reduce the burden on grassroots units.
It is necessary to
- understand regional, sectoral and temporal characteristics
- address issues via institutional reform
- eradicate the intersections of misconduct and corruption
- embrace the spirit of self-revolution by abiding by the
- checklist of violations of the eight-point regulation
- checklist of hidden or mutated misconduct
Party committees (groups) at all levels must take responsibility for their domains
- Party secretaries: setting examples and enforcing accountability
- Party activities: committee study sessions, reading classes and themed Party days
- Party schools and governance academies: incorporate relevant training into core programs
Units must identify issues via channels like discipline inspection, internal audits, financial oversight, field research and complaints
- compile detailed issue lists
- specify how issues manifested
- dig to the root causes
Rectification must be coordinated across levels
- higher-level units must take the lead if the root cause for conduct erosion is spread top-down
- departments must cooperate if there are shared issues that ought to be addressed
Party units must integrate this campaign with key policy priorities
- confront new global challenges such as the US-initiated tariff and trade wars
- high-quality development