CPC officials urged to ensure anti-decadence results

Members and officials of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have been urged to reevaluate their efforts to spot decadent behavior in a bid to ensure that no problem is left unspotted or uncorrected. A circular made public on Friday called on CPC members and officials to take a retrospective look at the progress of the "mass line" campaign so as to guarantee that they have learnt from experiences, spotted obvious problems, carried out deep self-analysis, criticized others and themselves carefully, and that they have effectively corrected their questionable behavior. The circular was released by the guidance group of the campaign, which aims to boost ties between CPC officials and the public, while cleaning up undesirable work styles such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance. "Various units and departments should carefully organize the 'retrospection' process in order to spot real problems, find differences and go through stages that have been poorly done all over again," the circular said. The campaign includes various stages including special sessions for officials to launch criticism at colleagues and themselves, rectification of problems discovered and inspection teams supervising the results. Stressing a clean-handed work style to seek concrete benefits for the people, the circular urged Party and government organs, state-owned enterprises, universities and law enforcement organs to respond to the public on hotspot issues and correct problems that "the people feel most strongly about." It also called for new rules to stem the deep-rooted factors that lead to undesirable work styles and regulate officials in their long-term anti-decadence drive. According to the circular, specific measures should be drafted to categorize the various problems discovered during the campaign and ensure that concerned officials make real efforts to correct their issues. The circular stressed that the mistake-correcting stage should be conducted "in the eyes of the people" in order to invite public scrutiny. Inspection groups were also urged to strictly supervise the results of the campaign, with anonymous visits and long-term tracking of officials' performances particularly cited. According to the circular, principal officials should set an example by heading the campaign in each unit and straightening out their own behavior first.