CPC unveils regulation to promote transparency in Party affairs

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee made public a regulation to promote transparency in Party affairs Monday,the first CPC regulation on disclosure of Party affairs.

Transparency in Party affairs is "a great measure" in implementing the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the CPC, firmly upholding full and strict governance over the Party and improving the Party's ability to govern and lead, said the CPC Central Committee in a statement.

Party organizations are required to disclose affairs concerning the Party leadership and Party building among the CPC members or outside the Party in accordance with rules, according to the regulation.

Party organizations' implementation of the Party's basic theory, line, and policy, their leadership over economic and social development, and efforts to strictly govern the Party and strengthen Party building shall be generally made public, along with information about the organizations' function and structure, it said.

However, promoting transparency in Party affairs should not pose a threat to political, economic, military, cultural, social, homeland security and the safety of the people, the regulation warned.

The regulation specifies which content should be released by Party organizations at different levels.

Central Party organizations should make public Party theories, lines, principles and policies, decisions and plans of Party and state governance, speeches and instructions by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, and important meetings, activities and appointment and removal of officials by the CPC Central Committee, among others.

Local Party organizations should publicize plans on local economic and social development, major reform events, and responses to major emergencies, according to the regulation.

Local Party organizations are also asked to reveal how they are fulfilling their responsibility to exercise strict Party self-governance in every respect, as well as major conferences, events and official appointments and removals, it said.

Primary-level Party organizations are required to release information about their goals, plans and implementation of major tasks, as well as their political education, general election, and management of regular membership dues, it said.

The regulation stipulated that Party organs for discipline inspection should publicize cases involving violations of CPC Central Committee discipline and punishment of officials who severely breach rules or neglect their duties.

Party committees at and above the county level and their discipline inspection organs are required to establish and improve the spokesman system and hold regular press conferences to release Party affairs in a timely manner, said the regulation.

Promotion of transparency in Party affairs was first put forward by the CPC at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in 2004. It was added to the Party Constitution in 2007.

The CPC Constitution states that "Party organizations at all levels shall practice transparency in Party affairs in accordance with regulations, helping Party members to be better informed of internal Party affairs and enabling them greater opportunity to participate."

In July 2009, the central Party affairs disclosure work leading group was set up in Beijing. Two months later, the Party passed a document at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee, stressing efforts toward transparency in Party affairs.

Previous documents on making public Party affairs mainly targeted local and primary-level Party organizations, while the new regulation included requirements for central Party organizations, showing the Party's confidence and openness, and the CPC Central Committee's duty to take the lead, said an unidentified official with the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.

The regulation embodies the Party's confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and is conducive to strengthening the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee and encouraging intra-Party democracy, the official said.

The regulation is of great importance to forming an improved system of intra-Party regulations by the time when the CPC celebrates its 100th anniversary, the official said.