China's new leaders to usher in tighter CPC

The new generation of China's top leaders will inject more vitality into the 91-year-old Communist Party of China (CPC), as well as implement stricter discipline and better organization, as was revealed at the conclusion of the 18th CPC National Congress.

The senior leaders of the Party, led by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made their collective debut on Thursday morning after the first plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, at which they were elected members of the Standing Committee of the 18th CPC Central Committee Political Bureau.

Addressing a press conference, Xi said the Party now faces many severe challenges.

"And there are also many pressing problems within the Party that need to be resolved, particularly corruption, being divorced from the people, going through formalities and bureaucratism caused by some Party officials," Xi said.

Xi called on Party members to uphold a principle that calls for the Party to supervise its own conduct and run itself with strict discipline.

"The whole Party must stay on full alert," Xi said.

Xi's comments echoed a speech delivered by comrade Hu Jintao at the opening session of the 18th CPC National Congress.

Hu said the Party is being confronted with increasingly grave risks, including a lack of drive, incompetence, a disconnect with the public, corruption and misconduct.

"Combating corruption and promoting political integrity, which is a major political issue of great concern to the people, is a clear-cut and long-term political commitment of the Party," Hu said.

"If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the Party, and even cause the collapse of the Party and the fall of the state" he warned.

The weeklong congress was held under the backdrop of diversified social ideologies and a constantly changing pattern of interests that has emerged in China in recent years, analysts said.

The congress officially enshrined the theory of Scientific Outlook on Development into the Party Constitution, elevating it to a theoretical guide for the Party along with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents.

By doing so, analysts said the world's largest political party will be able to forge a consensus among its 82 million members.

Observers say the Party's governing capacity has been greatly uplifted, as it has turned from a revolutionary party to a party that has led the country for more than six decades.

With new problems emerging, the Party is now looking into itself in order to make itself more cohesive and appealing.

To solve these problems, Hu stressed the need for "making party building more scientific in all respects" and listed eight tasks to that end, such as boosting intra-Party democracy, personnel management and Party discipline enforcement.

Lin Shangli, vice president of Fudan University and a Party-building researcher, said the eight tasks are not isolated, but are actually integrated.

"Fulfilling the tasks will be necessary to ensure the governance of the Party," Lin said.

Xie Chuntao, a professor with the CPC Central Committee Party School, said the CPC has been sticking to the theory of Scientific Outlook on Development while maintaining its own development.

Hu's report also put forward higher standards for Party members in terms of ideology, theory, Party spirit and morality.

"Party organizations at all levels and all Party members and officials, especially principal leading officials, must willingly abide by the Party Constitution as well as its organizational principles and guiding principles for its political activities; and no one is allowed to place oneself above the Party organization," Hu said.

The Party has also made more efforts to recruit talented young people as part of its efforts to increase its vitality.

The Party has proposed optimizing its membership structure and promised to develop intra-Party democracy.

"We should perfect the mechanism for recruiting and disqualifying Party members so as to improve the composition of Party membership," Hu proposed in his report.

Wang Jingqing, deputy head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at a press conference held during the congress that the CPC will form and perfect four mechanisms for the selection, evaluation, supervision and stimulation of Party officials by 2020.

China scholar Robert Lawrence Kuhn said earlier that most of the efforts made by the new CPC leadership will be directed toward recruiting more talented people who have both creativity and firm political convictions, as well as entrusting them with important tasks and positions.

"I believe that the Communist Party of China is well equipped," said Kuhn, author of "How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Reform and What This Means for the Future."

"When the CPC was founded 91 years ago in Shanghai, the average age of the 13 delegates who attended the first CPC National Congress was no more than 30," said Ni Xingxiang, curator of a Shanghai museum built at the same site where the original congress was held.

"I have every reason to believe that more young and talented Chinese will join the Party," Ni said.