China News Service:

Regarding the issue of anti-corruption, we have noticed media reports stating that more than 90% of the general public are satisfied with the results of the Party's work in improving Party conduct, building a clean government and combating corruption. When answering the question just now, Mr. Xiao mentioned a sentence at least twice: "a sweeping victory has been secured and consolidated in all respects of the fight against corruption." This phrase was also stated in this way at the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in January. I would like to ask, in what specific ways has this manifested? What will your next steps be going forward? Thank you.

Xiao Pei:

Securing a sweeping victory in the fight against corruption is a strategic goal put forward by the 19th National Congress of the CPC. The sixth requirement of section 13 of the report of the 19th National Congress of the CPC, uses this phrase as its title. "Having secured a sweeping victory and consolidating it in all respects" was General Secretary Xi Jinping's significant judgment on the current anti-corruption fight at the fifth plenary session of the 19th CCDI of the CPC held this January. With tenfold efforts to encircle the corruption and fivefold efforts to fight it, it is necessary to build up absolute strength and form an overwhelming situation in the fight against corruption. That is, the entire Party must act to form a pattern in which the whole Party implements the main responsibilities of managing and governing the Party. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the anti-corruption campaign has formed a strategic position with no no-go zones, no ground left unturned and no tolerance shown for corruption. It has formed a situation where the sharp sword of Damocles is hanging high, the deterrence is always there, and whenever a case involving corruption is discovered, it is handled accordingly. The anti-corruption campaign has also formed a system and mechanism that makes no one dare, be able to or want to be corrupt. This is the sweeping victory. Two months after the conclusion of the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping attended the second plenary meeting of the 18th CCDI of the CPC and proposed that unswervingly punishing corruption is a manifestation of the Party's strength. No matter who you are or how high a position you hold, if you violate the Party's discipline and national laws, you will be severely punished. The general secretary said that this is by no means empty talk: the CPC Central Committee must do what it says. Over the past eight years, General Secretary Xi Jinping has led us in a great struggle with many new historical characteristics. The fight against corruption is one of the important battles, and also a tough battle for our self-revolution and strict governance of the Party in an all-round way. Over the past eight years, the general secretary has repeatedly warned the entire Party that corruption has destructive and harmful effects on the Party's ruling foundation, and that corruption is the easiest way to bring down the government and the biggest threat to the Party. The fight against corruption is a significant political struggle that cannot and must not be lost, and it requires firm resolve to fight and win. Therefore, the general secretary said that people's support is the greatest politics. If you want to avoid offending hundreds of corrupt officials, you will offend 1.4 billion people. This is a political "account book," and an "account book" where people's hearts are at. That cannot be clearer. It is necessary to lay a solid foundation for the Party's rule and to unite the hearts of the Party members and the people. Therefore, the anti-corruption fight carried out by our Party is backed up by sound theories, and is purposeful, action-oriented and effective.

First, we have established the anti-corruption system and mechanism under the unified leadership of the Party, which has formed a work system and pattern featuring the unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, overall coordination by the Party committees, organization and coordination of the commissions for discipline inspection, efficient coordination of functional departments, and the participation and support of the people. Party committees at all levels implement the main responsibilities, and the anti-corruption coordination group of the CPC Central Committee fully exerts its functional role. The CPC Central Committee promoted the deepening of reforms to the national inspection and supervision system, integrating the reforms of the disciplinary inspection system and the supervision system, established the National Supervisory Commission and local supervisory committees at all levels to form a special anti-corruption force, like clenching your fingers to form a fist, so as to punish corruption effectively. These are major reforms to the political system, which have strengthened the Party's overall leadership in all aspects and the entire process of its anti-corruption work.

Second, the principle of anti-corruption work has been established, which is the "Three Insists" mentioned in the report of the 19th National Congress of the CPC, namely, insisting that there are no no-go zones, no ground is left unturned and no tolerance is shown for corruption; insisting that there are tight constraints, maintaining a tough stance, and a long-term deterrence, and insisting on punishing both those who take bribes, and those who offer them. The establishment of this principle in the anti-corruption work has had a huge deterrent effect. According to the requirements of the CPC Central Committee, the CCDI maintains a close eye on key people and key areas; on those who have not restrained themselves from misbehavior or stopped their wrongdoing since the 18th National Congress of the CPC; on issues that have received concentrated and strong complaints from the public; on key areas such as construction of projects, land transfer, public resource transactions, finance, state-owned enterprises, politics, law and justice, education, and medical care; on corruption affecting the lives of the people, especially those who dare to use poverty alleviation funds and infringe on the interests of the people; on corruption related to people's livelihood; and on the corruption causing risks, such as corruption that lurks behind financial risks, and then resolutely investigates and deals with them.

Third, an important guideline in the fight against corruption has been formed, which is advancing measures as a whole to ensure no one dares, is able to or wants to be corrupt. This is not only the basic policy in the fight against corruption, but also an important strategy for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. After the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the first goal set was to curb the rampant spread of corruption. Under the still severe and complex anti-corruption fight at the time, we started by treating the symptoms, to buy time for treating the root causes, constructing the system and deepening reforms. After the 19th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping asked us to continue to advance the anti-corruption fight with no delay, address both the symptoms and root causes, comprehensively implement the treatment, and press on to deal with corruption at deeper levels. Therefore, "not daring to be corrupt" is the prerequisite, and "not being able to be corrupt" is the key, which means that we must strengthen construction of the system, enhance supervision and management, deepen reforms, and remove system and mechanism obstacles. Finally, "not wanting to be corrupt" is fundamental. The Party has promoted the theme of staying true to our original aspiration and founding mission. The general secretary asked that it be an eternal task for strengthening Party building and a lifelong task for all Party members and cadres, so as to build a "dam of thought" for them to resist corruption and degeneration, so that leading officials and cadres dare not be corrupt because of awe, cannot be corrupt because of the system, and do not want to be corrupt because of self-awareness. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the national disciplinary inspection and supervision organs have filed and reviewed 3.8 million cases, or to be more specific, 3.805 million cases. Around 4.089 million people were investigated and dealt with, and the anti-corruption efforts and scales were considerable. The Party has disciplined and applied administrative sanctions on 3.742 million Party members. Since the 19th National Congress of the CPC, under the deterrence of punishing corruption and encouraged by the Party's lenient policies, 42,000 people have actively surrendered to the Party organizations and disciplinary inspection and supervision organs. Since we launched the "Sky Net" international anti-corruption campaign, pursing criminal suspects, their money and properties overseas, we have brought back 9,165 fugitives from 120 countries and regions, among whom were 2,408 Party members and state employees, and recovered 21.739 billion yuan. 60 of the 100 most-wanted corrupt Chinese fugitives subject to Interpol's red notices have returned from abroad.

Fourth, a rule of law system against corruption has been established. Over eight years ago at the second plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward that we should apply rule of law thinking and approaches in cracking down on corruption. In accordance with the work of the national anti-corruption legislation, we have amended the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, and formulated the Supervision Law and the law on administrative discipline for government employees. Our system of rule of law in this regard has been further improved.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the fight against corruption has lived up to people's expectations, safeguarded the Party's purity, and won the people's hearts. The intensity and effectiveness of this fight are unprecedented in the history of both China and the world. China has opened a new path in which we combat corruption under the CPC's leadership, resolutely punish corruption based on the socialist rule of law, and tackle corruption through the strength of the socialist system. Thank you.

Macao Daily News:

Mr. Guo mentioned earlier that the CPC has maintained constant contact with more than 560 political parties and political organizations from over 160 countries. My question is, what role does the Party's external work play in the future. Thank you.

Guo Yezhou:

During the introduction session, I already briefed on the role the Party's external work has played during different historical periods of revolution, construction and reform of China. To answer your question, I will introduce the role of the Party's external work since socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era following the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. It's fair to say that this new era has put forward new requirements and missions for the Party's external work, while also requiring it to play new roles in the following aspects.

First, the Party's external work should play a bigger role in faithfully fulfilling its duty as an important front of our Party. To achieve this goal, the Party's external work has given top priority to serving General Secretary Xi Jinping's important diplomatic agenda and major decisions of the CPC Central Committee. The Party's external work has kept consciously and firmly in mind the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment. It has also strengthened the confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It resolutely upholds General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and resolutely upholds the Party Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. The Party's external work has proactively shouldered its political responsibility, firmly maintained worst-case scenario thinking, raised awareness of potential dangers, and carried forward the fighting spirit. It strives to resolve some of the negative factors existing in the external environment, as well as safeguard and consolidate the Party's position as the governing party. It has also taken the initiative to conduct research on major theoretical and practical issues, so as to better assist and support the decision-making of the CPC Central Committee. The Party's external work also proactively carries out political and publicity work concerning national sovereignty, security, and development interests, strengthening the international community's support for China's just cause.

Second, the new era requires the Party's external work to play a bigger part in further increasing the CPC's international influence, ability to inspire, and power to shape. With this in mind, the Party's external work has actively responded to the concerns of the international community, consecutively holding 14 sessions of "Stories of CPC – Local Party Committees' Achievements in Practicing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era." In 2020, we overcame the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and held over 260 online events. In the first half of this year, in view of the new challenges of the pandemic and the country's prevention regulations, we have held more than 150 communicative events online and offline. Themes of these events include "Green Development," "Targeted Poverty Alleviation," "Innovative Development," Openness and Win-win Cooperation," and "Turning Blueprint into Reality," to name a few. The Party's external work has made active efforts to help the international community have a more accurate and profound understanding of the CPC's original aspiration and founding mission, and view the Chinese path, experiences, and visions in an objective and comprehensive way, so as to let people hold correct expectations and establish an objective, fair, and friendly "view of the CPC" and "view of China."

Third, the Party's external work should play a bigger part in establishing a new type of party-to-party relations and serving the overall development of our major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. To achieve this goal, the Party's external work has followed the basic principles of expanding common ground while shelving differences, mutual respect, and mutual learning, and comprehensively developed friendly relations with political parties around the world. We have been working continuously to consolidate and strengthen our relationship with socialist countries such as Vietnam, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Laos, and Cuba because party-to-party relations are the political foundation for our relations with these countries. We have also strengthened institutionalized exchanges with major countries and major parties, stepped up communication and cooperation with political parties from neighboring countries and developing countries, and actively participated in global multilateral party events. We also strive to build a global political party partnership network, giving full play to the role that party-to-party relations play in consolidating, promoting, and safeguarding the relations between countries. As of the end of 2020, the CPC had maintained regular contact with 544 political parties from 164 countries as well as 16 international and regional political partisan organizations. Among these foreign political parties, more than 160 are the national ruling parties of the respective countries; more than 100 are political parties participating in governance; over 100 are local ruling parties; and over 200 are influential opposition parties. It is fair to say that CPC's "friend circle" in the world keeps expanding, and this "friend circle" is inclusive of political parties despite their status to both officials and non-officials. 

Fourth, it will play a bigger role in serving the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. To this end, we gave play to our distinctive strengths in our work, enhanced the connection of political philosophies in interparty exchanges, deepened cultural communication and mutual learning, built cooperation consensuses, expanded cooperation space, and worked hard to serve and promote the fostering of a new development paradigm. We strived to overcome the fallout of the COVID-19 epidemic, actively met the development demands of various localities, provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, and created the "Political Party Plus" model for exchanges, which covers all the country's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions except for Taiwan province. All these have contributed to promoting work and production resumption across the country, and result-oriented international cooperation at all levels.

Finally, the new era calls on the CPC's international engagement work to play a bigger role in promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, safeguarding world peace, advancing common development, upholding fairness and justice, and demonstrating the responsibility of China as a major country and of the CPC as a major party. To this end, through interparty communication, we actively promoted the process of political settlement in regional hotspots and of difficult issues as well as some global matters, advocated fostering a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation, and made global governance fairer in accordance with the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We established a political party consultation mechanism with key partners in the Belt and Road Initiative to further build consensus with governments and opposition parties in these countries and encourage them to participate in related collaboration.

At the critical moment when COVID-19 was running rampant, we provided anti-epidemic materials to more than 200 political parties in over 70 countries, and briefed in real-time more than 400 political parties and political organizations in 140-plus countries on China's experience in fighting the epidemic and resuming work and production. We also mobilized domestic non-governmental organizations to provide anti-epidemic support to more than 60 countries, and called for solidarity and cooperation in anti-epidemic endeavors along with more than 140 political parties and international organizations of political parties from over 110 countries. We also issued consensuses with more than 190 political parties and organizations (over 100 of which were from Islamic countries) from more than 80 countries, opposing interference in other countries' internal affairs by a few countries on the pretext of human rights. It's fair to say that the CPC's external work reflects the responsibility of a major country and a major party and has added new elements to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.

We firmly believe that under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, and as the building of a modern socialist country with Chinese characteristics has been initiated across the board, the CPC can and will secure great achievements in its external engagement. Thank you.