Page 43 - Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development

democratic, and law-based. The right approach must be followed in selecting
and appointing officials, with political commitment as the primary criterion.

We should make sure that officials have a correct understanding of what it
means to perform well and act accordingly, and improve the system for
assessing their performance. Those who are no longer fit for their posts

should be replaced, and ongoing efforts must be made to ensure that officials
can be demoted as well as promoted. We should strengthen education and
training for officials and temper them through practice, so that they acquire

the skills needed to advance modernization. We must be both strict and
caring and place equal emphasis on providing incentives and imposing
constraints, so as to unleash the internal drive and collective vitality of our

officials.
We should take coordinated steps to improve primary-level Party
organizations in all sectors, strengthen their political and organizational

functions, and give full play to Party members’ exemplary role. We should
continue to steadfastly implement the central Party leadership’s eight-point
decision on improving work conduct and resolutely stamp out all forms of

misconduct. Consistent and unremitting efforts must be made to keep
improving conduct. We should continue to address pointless formalities to
lighten the burdens on those working on the ground. We should improve the

Party and state oversight systems to tighten regulation and oversight over the
allocation and exercise of power. The fight against corruption is always
ongoing and requires us to remain sober-minded and steadfast. We must take

coordinated steps to ensure that officials do not have the audacity,
opportunity, or desire to commit corruption, and see that we have the resolve
to keep waging this tough, protracted, and all-out battle. We must also work

to develop a political atmosphere of integrity.
57. Advancing socialist democracy and rule of law
We must remain firmly committed to the path of socialist political

advancement with Chinese characteristics. We should uphold the unity
between leadership by the Party, the running of the country by the people,
and law-based governance, develop whole-process people’s democracy, and

promote socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. The system of
people’s congresses must be upheld, improved, and implemented to good
effect, so as to ensure that state institutions exercise powers and perform
duties in accordance with the law, and that people’s democratic rights and

other legitimate rights and interests are protected and guaranteed. The system

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