Some questions should not be asked, China’s President Xi Jinping tells Communist Party members
President Xi Jinping (習近平) has told Communist Party members to exercise caution when speaking about key policies and warned them against creating factions.
Xi, who leads the party in his position as General Secretary, warned members not to ask questions “that should not be asked” and told them not to spread gossip about party politics.
The comments were revealed in the latest book edited by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which collected previously undisclosed remarks made by Xi since the party’s 18th congress in November 2012.
“There are some people spreading rumours, forwarding comments online or gathering groups of die-hard friends together to inappropriately discuss major party policies,” Xi told a CCDI meeting a year ago.
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“Some have been keen to poke around and … ask the things they should not ask ... and run after the so-called internal information and spread it in private,” said Xi, adding such actions had been rotting and decaying the party.
In the same speech, Xi criticised party officials who failed to report personal problems relating to such items as their health, children and marriages until the problems had become serious.
“Some have multiple documents, even having several passports and fake ID cards, and should these matters not be reported?” Xi asked in the meeting, “They should report if they understand the rules, and if they don’t, they either didn’t learn the rules, or they have some dark secrets.”
The publication of Xi’s remarks comes ahead of a CCDI conference from January 12-14. Observers said tightening the political discipline of party officials would be a key theme.
The party has recently introduced punishments for party members who make inappropriate comments about key policies, vilify party leaders, distort history or who fail to honestly report important personal matters.
Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Clean Government Centre at Peking University, said past regulations did not cover the need for stringent checks on cadres. In some cases, checks were being made only every six months.
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“Previously many party officials failed to report their personal matters to the party authorities because of the lack of timely supervision,” Zhuang said.
He said Xi was likely to make such checks more frequent and more strict.
Xi has previously referred to officials implicated in the anti-graft drive as having formed factions to harm party unity “for the interests of themselves or their small groups”.
Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based political commentator, said the remarks showed Xi was facing a mounting challenge.
“In Mao’s era, the party could unify the thinking of its members by rigid propaganda, but now it’s difficult as everyone faces an abundance of information online. Attempts to rein in party members in the old way would be hard to enforce well.”
