President Xi promises to shake off GDP obsession in promoting officials

Chinese President Xi Jinping Saturday noted that China would never assess the performance of an official simply based on his record of boosting economy. The Communist Party of China (CPC) should adopt more comprehensive criteria for assessing the performance of its officials, said Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, at a meeting on the work of personnel resources on the eve of the 92nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). It should consider a local official's work in various aspects including people's livelihood, the development of local society and the quality of environment. "We should never judge a cadre simply by the growth of gross domestic product (GDP)," he said. When promoting officials, the CPC organization departments should consider integrity as a priority and then capability, he said. "The Party's cadres should be firm followers of Communist ideal, true believers of Marxism and devoted fighters for the socialism with Chinese characteristics," he said. They must serve the people heart and soul, exercise their power carefully and resist corruption, he said. A CPC official's integrity will not grow with the years of service and promotion of his post but with persistent efforts to discipline himself and study Marxist classics and theories of the socialism with Chinese characteristics, he said. To select and promote good officials, the Party needs an efficient and reasonable system, Xi said. More efforts should be made to improve the transparency of promotion and promote an upright style in the recommendation and assessment of officials, he said, adding that the promotion of officials should not be decided by simple headcount of votes. The President also stressed the training and promotion of young Party officials and pledged that more opportunities will be offered to young promising candidates. Xi urged to punish disciplinary violations and corruption during official selection procedures. Buying and selling official positions as well as canvassing must be punished without any appeasement, Xi said. Organization departments across the country should stick to justice and honesty, which is the leading principle for improving their work styles, said Xi. Officials should be treated fairly and reviewed equally. Those good at currying favor with others and falsifying their work without doing any concrete jobs should be punished, Xi said. Intra-Party management and rules can never be slackened as CPC is a 85million-member party ruling a country of 1.3 billion, Xi said. Every official must understand that to hold the post means he must work harder and accept stricter disciplines, he said. He urged all the Party members and officials to safeguard the authority of the central committee and the solidarity of the whole Party. At the same meeting, Liu Yunshan, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, called for deepened reform on personnel system in a bid to perfect measures used to nominate, evaluate, select and supervise officials. Liu also urged increased credibility for selecting and appointing officials so as to form a high quality talent team. In order to promote the organization work under the new situation, more importance should be attached to fostering and selecting more officials who are capable of meeting the demands of the Party and the people. Liu noted that a scientific mechanism for officials' selection and appointment is conducive to improving the scientific level of Party building. Officials should also be educated and guided to consolidate their belief in socialism with Chinese characteristics, according to Liu. Zhao Leji, head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, asked organization departments at all levels to take the lead in improving their work styles. During the meeting, officials also studied and deployed the work for party building and organization in the five years to come.