Central Party School president Xi Jinping, the heir apparent to Communist Party general secretary Hu Jintao at this autumn's National Party Congress, has told party members to maintain the 'purity' of their political ideology ahead of the congress.
Analysts said Xi (inset) was stressing his legitimacy as Hu's successor, but his call also hinted that he was unlikely to be a political reformer.
In an article in the latest edition of Qiushi, the Communist Party's journal, Xi reiterated the importance of maintaining the 'purity of party spirit' more than 50 times. The article was based on a speech he made at the opening ceremony of the Central Party School, the top training centre for party officials, on March 1.
Xi said he inherited Hu's call for 'maintaining the party's advanced nature' - also known as the 'baoxian theory' - that was proposed in 2005.
'Nowadays, some people who do not advocate Marxism have joined the party or serve just to earn more benefits or political capital for themselves or their family,' Xi said. 'We should set up a comprehensive party member appraisal system to assess our members' party spirit regularly, and those corrupt and degenerative members who refuse to correct their wrongdoings should be expelled.'
Paul Lin, a Taipei-based political commentator who taught Communist Party history on the mainland from 1955 to 1976, said Xi had pointed out a series of problems among the party's 80 million members, especially their ideological purity, which would harm their loyalty to the party. 'Xi wants to come out with another different ideological theory than those inherited from Hu and Jiang [Zemin], which would help to consolidate his political status after Hu hands power over to him,' Lin said.