Top leaders urge more efforts to promote 'mass line' campaign

Top leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have called for more efforts to promote a campaign to boost ties between the Party and the people.

The "mass line" campaign was launched in June 2013, with aims to boost ties between CPC officials, Party members and the people, while cleaning up four undesirable work styles -- formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.

President Xi Jinping and six other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee are in charge of supervising campaign implementation in designated provincial-level regions.

They have attended provincial Party leadership meetings, conducted study tours and given instructions during past months, with achievement made, particularly in cleaning up undesirable work styles.

Official figures released on Thursday showed 22,457 official cars and 519 government building projects had been canceled in the seven provinces by the end of 2013. Meetings held by provincial Party committees or governments have been reduced by 35 percent and official documents decreased 15 percent.

Public spending on official receptions, overseas trips, and vehicle purchases and maintenance in the seven provinces has decreased by 3.373 billion yuan (556.9 million U.S. dollars).

A total of 6,820 officials in the provinces have been punished for violating the "eight-point" anti-bureaucracy rules as of the end of 2013.

Results in streamlining administration and delegating power to lower levels have also been seen in these provinces.

A total of 1,193 items of administrative approval have been canceled or delegated to lower levels.

Since the campaign started, Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has joined Hebei provincial Party leadership sessions during which the officials self-checked the work to promote the "mass line" campaign.

Premier Li Keqiang attended sessions in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Top legislator Zhang Dejiang joined in a Jiangsu Province leadership session and top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng attended a session in Gansu Province. Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli joined sessions in Zhejiang, Heilongjiang and Sichuan provinces respectively.

During the sessions, key members of provincial Party committees examined their own conduct, laid out major problems and their causes, and set down plans for correction.

The top leadership urged efforts to deepen the "mass line" campaign in order to better promote overall reform across the country.