First Published: In Chinese, in Beijing
Hongqi, No. 19, 1 October 1982.
Source of the translation: Joint Publications Research
Service (Arlington, VA, USA), China Report: Red Flag No. 19, 1 October 1982.
(JPRS 82362), 1 December 1982, pages 16-22.
Transcription/HTML/Markup for marxists.org: February
2024.
The new party constitution adopted by the CPC National Congress has stipulated in clear and definite terms that "The party selects its cadres according to the principle that they should possess both political integrity and professional competence, persists in the practice of appointing people on their merits and opposes favoritism; it calls for genuine efforts to make the ranks of cadres more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized." The core of the organizational work is the question of cadres. Making the ranks of the cadres more revolutionary, younger in age and more knowledgeable and specialized is a major principle of the party's cadre work in the new period. The comrades of the whole party must resolutely, unconditionally and enthusiastically propagate and conscientiously implement this principle.
The advance and formation of this principle went through a process. After the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee formulated the party's ideological and political lines in the new period, in July and August 1979, Comrade Deng Xiaoping inspected Shandong Province, Shanghai and Tianjin. On his inspection tour, he pointed out on many occasions during the journey that since the ideological and political lines have been formulated, the question now is that of the organizational line, that of cadres and, in particular, that of selecting successors. Cadres who are competent and fairly young should be selected for promotion. On 29 September in the same year, in his speech delivered at the meeting to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, Comrade Ye Jianying stressed the need to pay attention to ensuring that "the ranks of cadres become younger in average age and more specialized step by step" and the need to try our best to "make the situation of our organization suit the political task of realizing the four modernizations." In May 1980, at the forum on the work of selecting and promoting outstanding young and middle-aged cadres, a forum which was convened by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, Comrade Yaobang further pointed out that the so-called ideal leading bodies means that the members of the leading bodies must resolutely carry out the party's line, uphold the socialist road, possess professional knowledge and organizational and leadership ability, and must be in the prime of life and full of vigor. During this period, Comrade Chen Yun held that in selecting cadres, attention should be paid to the fact that they should possess both political integrity and professional competence. By political integrity, we mean, above all, upholding the socialist road and the leadership of the party. On this basis, the cadres should become younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized, and furthermore this method of selecting and using cadres should become a regular practice. The great historically significant decision adopted by the 6th Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee again clearly affirmed that "the party has decided to put an end to the virtually lifelong tenure of leading cadres, change the overconcentration of power and, on the basis of becoming more revolutionary, gradually reduce the average age of the leading cadres at all levels and raise their level of education and professional competence." From the above-mentioned sketchy review of the past, we can see that the policy of ensuring that the ranks of cadres become "more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized" was worked out by the party Central Committee through careful consideration and on the basis of making repeated deliberations and of drawing on collective wisdom and absorbing all useful ideas. It is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the party's leading core, it conforms with objective reality and also complies with the common aspirations of the party and the people.
To ensure that the ranks of the cadres become more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized is a major subject put forth by the objective process of the continuous development of our socialist cause. With the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee as the milestone, our country has entered a brand-new period of development. During this period, the party should shoulder the heavy responsibilities entrusted by history of leading the people of all nationalities throughout the country in building the economically and culturally backward China into a modern and powerful socialist country. The task of carrying out such an unprecedented pioneering undertaking is extremely arduous. Although the domestic and international situations are favorable for us, we are still confronted with many difficulties. Of the various kinds of difficulties, the conspicuous difficulty is that the present conditions of the ranks of cadres are not suited to the requirements of the new situation. The main manifestations of this situation at present are: 1) historically, the members of leading bodies at various levels are universally 15 to 20 years older than they were before the "Great Cultural Revolution" and the gap between their present average age and that in the 1950's is even wider, that is, the phenomenon of aging is serious; and 2) a considerable number of cadres lack cultural knowledge and scientific and technical know-how, and the number of those who have received systematic professional training and have a knowledge of advanced science and technology and management techniques is even smaller.
This state of affairs is in sharp contradiction with the requirements of the socialist modernization program. If we ignore the question of cadres put forth by the objective process of the great historical turning point and fail to promptly and correctly solve this problem, it will be difficult to implement the party's political line, let alone continuously carry it out for long years. It is not alarmist talk to raise the question in this way. The practice of the international communist movement has given us grievous lessons. The profound lessons our party has drawn from solving the problem of successors and from building a cadre contingent remain fresh in our memory. Happily, we already have a large number of veteran revolutionaries who enjoy high prestige and command universal respect and have rich experience. At a critical moment in effecting a great turning point in history and facing the question of the cooperation between old and new cadres and the succession of the old by the new, with great foresight, they put forth in good time for the party a correct principle of properly solving the question of cadres, that is, a principle of ensuring that the ranks of cadres become younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized on the basis of revolutionization. Experience tells us that only a party which is not only good at formulating a correct political line but also good at formulating the organizational line which ensures the implementation—the effective implementation—of the political line, can be regarded as a mature Marxist party. Ours is precisely such a party.
To ensure the "four modernizations" of the ranks of cadres, it is first imperative to start with the "transformation" of the leading bodies at various levels. Our tentative ideas are that before the convening of the next CPC National Congress, 5 years of efforts should be exerted to substantially raise the political quality of the leading bodies at various levels, and reduce the average age of the members of the leading bodies at various levels by about 5 years compared with that before the organizational reform; by then, the young and middle-aged cadres who possess both political integrity and professional competence will constitute about 70 percent; those who have an educational level of institutions of higher education or above and have mastered certain professional knowledge will make up 60 to 70 percent. In particular: we must have some of the number one and number two men of great ability who can unite and lead all the leading bodies in opening up new prospects in work. Of course, since the various localities at all levels, trades and departments have their own specific tasks, the requirements of the political and ideological levels, age and composition of knowledge for the leading bodies must also differ accordingly. However, we must not waver in marching ahead along the lines of making the ranks of cadres more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized, in building working bodies which are small in number but highly energetic and capable of continuously opening up new prospects in work. Can the above-mentioned tentative ideas be realized? The achievements gained in the organizational reform carried out in the organs under the direct jurisdiction of the party Central Committee and the ministries and commissions under the State Council in the first half of this year make us confident in answering in the affirmative. This reform which took us 4 months not only great reduced the authorized size of the party and government bodies at the central level and their staff but also widely reduced the average age of the members of the leading bodies of the ministries and commissions and bureaus under their jurisdiction by 4 to 6 years. According to the statistics of the 38 ministries and commissions under the State Council, the number of ministers, vice ministers and directors was reduced by 67 percent and the newly promoted young and middle-aged cadres constituted 32 percent of the total sum of members of the newly established bodies; moreover, their level of knowledge was higher and more and more people were professionally competent. There are also quite a few successful instances in the localities, departments and enterprises and undertaking units where the organizational reform has not yet been carried out. This shows that the above-mentioned requirements are attainable so long as efforts, are exerted.
The crux of the matter lies in the fact that the problem of "retirement" and "promotion" should be solved satisfactorily. By "retirement," we mean conscientiously and properly arranging for batches of old and infirm comrades to retire to the second or third line resolutely in accordance with the regulations of the party Central Committee concerning the retirement system for old cadres and the related regulations of the State Council. The practice of the organizational reform of the party and government central organs shows that the overwhelming majority of our veteran cadres have high political consciousness; can recommend wise and well qualified people out of concern for public interests; can proceed from the overall situation to conscientiously submit to the needs of revolution and the arrangements of the party organizations; can support young comrades whose seniority, prestige and experience are inferior to their own in their newly assigned work, and are willing to be assistants or to retire to the second or third line to take on the task of helping and guiding their young comrades and passing on experience to them. By "promotion" we mean promoting young and middle-aged cadres who have proved themselves to the leading bodies resolutely to be really outstanding after undergoing trials in practice, according to the principle of both political integrity and professional competence. As Comrade Chen Yun said: Not just a few dozen or a few hundred, but thousands and tens of thousands of cadres must be promoted. At present particular attention must be paid to training and selecting out- standing cadres who are about 30 to 40 years old. The promotion and retirement of this kind are closely related. For veteran cadres to with- draw from first-line leading posts is important while for young and middle- aged cadres to be promoted to these posts is more important. Careful and skillful handling is needed in solving the questions of who should retire and what should become of them and who should be promoted and to what posts. The most important thing in this regard is to find the right people and put them to good use.
The guiding ideology of the CPC Central Committee is quite clear on the matter of "promotion," that is, it is imperative to boldly promote cadres who possess both political integrity and professional competence, and are in the prime of life and capable of opening up new prospects in work to leading posts; at the same time, none of the "three types of people" and none of the people who have seriously violated the law and discipline in the political or economic sphere in recent years should be allowed to sneak into the newly established leading bodies. It is the solemn responsibility of the party committees at all levels and the departments of organization and of personnel affairs to manage these two matters well, conscientiously implement the party's standards for selecting cadres and persist in the practice of appointing people on their merits and opposing favoritism. At the same time, it is also necessary to earnestly heed the opinions of all sides and quarters concerned and the masses, restructure the practices of the organizational and personnel work which do not suit the modernization program and open up new channels for discovering, training and using qualified personnel. Who are the able and virtuous people whom the party and the people want most to select and put in important positions? The three requirements which the party stressed some years ago and the six basic requirements stipulated by the new party constitution for leading cadres at all levels to meet are identical in spirit. The requirements are the embodiment of the dialectical unity of Red and expert and the objectivization of the party's principle of both political integrity and professional competence in the new historical conditions. While grasping and carrying out these requirements, it is essential to strictly ensure the political standard first and to promote the comrades who really have a strong sense of party spirit, are honest and upright in their methods and dare to uphold principles. It is impossible to imagine that a man who lacks firm confidence in socialism and communism, who is alienated from the correct line, principles and politics of the party Central Committee, who is irresponsible in his work, in low spirits and morally degenerate in his conduct, and who violates the law and discipline can shoulder heavy loads in leading socialist construction. However, it is far from enough to pay attention exclusively to political integrity. Only when they become younger in average age and more knowledgeable and have a good grasp of their professions, can our ranks of cadres adapt themselves to the requirements of the new tasks of the new situation. It is a pity that those who possess political integrity without professional competence can hardly stake up an important post although admittedly they are politically trustworthy; the professional competence of those who possess professional competence without political integrity is precisely enough to make them more self-seeking and wily.
If we put them in important positions, they will constitute a grave danger to us. At present, we must specially watch out for the people who rose to prominence by following the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques; people who are seriously factionalist in their ideas; people who indulged in beating, smashing and looting; people who are opposed to the line followed by the party Central Committee since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee; and people who have seriously violated the law and discipline in the economic and other spheres, and we must never let them sneak into leading posts. None of these types of people must be promoted and any of them who have already been promoted to leading bodies must be resolutely and thoroughly removed from the leading bodies one by one if discovered. This is an extremely important matter which concerns whether or not we can ensure the smooth sailing of the socialist modernization program and ensure the continuity of the party's Marxist line. We must never treat this matter casually.
To judge and select cadres at various levels, we must strictly act according to the basic requirements stipulated in the new party constitution and on no account must we lower the requirements on them in the slightest degree. Then are there thousands and tens of thousands of such qualified personnel for us to select for promotion? We not only already have such talent but also have rich resources of it. There is no harm here in calculating roughly the age, qualifications and records of service (the tempering they have undergone) and the composition of culture and knowledge of the existing cadres: 1) the comrades who are 36 to 55 years old number 11 million; 2) the number of cadres who took up their work after the victory of the war of resistance against Japan and before the "Great Cultural Revolution" is around 12 million; 3) the comrades who have reached the level of senior middle school graduate or above total roughly 12 million; and 4) the technical cadres of various professions-amount to more than 8.3 million. After the founding of the PRC, we trained a total of more than 3.1 million university graduates and over 38 million graduates from senior middle schools and specialized secondary schools, at present the intellectuals who work in the units under the system of ownership by the whole people and under the collective ownership system number more than 25 million. It can thus be seen that it is entirely possible to select those who excel in all spheres and to choose one in a hundred from our huge treasure house of talent and to accelerate the promotion of cadres.
Over the last 2 or 3 years, the party Central Committee and the various localities and departments have done a lot of work in realizing the "four modernizations" of the leading bodies and certain achievements have also been scored in this respect. However, judging the work as a whole, the result is far from satisfactory. This does not mean that we have not yet selected any of the right people but what we mean is that the number of people we have selected for promotion is too meager. This plus the natural growth of the age of cadres has brought about the phenomena in which little change has taken place in the average age of the members of quite a few leading bodies and large batches of comrades who possess both political integrity and professional competence and are in the prime of life have not been promoted to appropriate leading posts. The problems and difficulties in this respect lie in the fact that, as Comrade Deng Xiaoping said: The existing organizational system and the way of thinking of quite a few comrades are detrimental to the selection and use of the talent that is needed most badly in the four modernizations. Where does the way out lie? Comrade Deng Xiaoping said: "We hope that the party committees at all levels will make a big turnaround on this matter, resolutely emancipate their minds, overcome one obstacle after another, break with old conventions and be bold in reforming the system of organization and of personnel affairs which are out of keeping with the times, in vigorously training, discovering and breaking the rules to promote outstanding talent and in waging resolute struggle against all phenomena of suppressing and trampling talent underfoot." In this respect, we, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, did insufficiently in the past.
In the future, together with the comrades of the whole party, we must do our best to act as required by the party Central Committee. First of all, we must further deepen our understanding and in the selection work, we must pay regular attention to opposing feudal ideas, such as the mentality of "replacement according to seniority" and clear away the influence of "leftist" ideology in treating intellectuals, correct the idealist way of thinking of seeking "all-rounders," "perfect men" and the like in a way that deviates from reality, and really shift the emphasis of cadre work to the acceleration of the "four transformations" of the ranks of cadres so as to realize the "four modernizations" of the country.
It must still be pointed out here that making the ranks of cadres more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized is a principle which should be carried out for long years throughout the whole new period. Carrying out the "transformation" in an on-and-off way will never attain the goal of "transformation." This is not only because people are getting older year after year, that is, today they are in the prime of life and some years later they will grow old and infirm, but also because the development of our cause calls for steady improvement of the requirements of being more revolutionary, knowledgeable and specialized. What is more, whether or not the newly promoted people can be well qualified must also go through trials in practice and they are bound to change. Therefore, we must implement the principle of ensuring that the ranks of cadres become more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized and find good solutions to the problem of the cooperation between old and new cadres and of the succession of the old by the new with extremely great revolutionary toughness and with positive, steady and sure steps. People can see that the organizational reform of the central organs and the ministries and commissions of the State Council has pushed the "four transformations" of the leading bodies a big step further. This is however only the first step. According to statistics for the 34 ministries and commissions connected with the economy under the State Council, there are now 137 ministers and vice ministers as well as directors and vice directors with an average age of 57.93 years old, or 5.7 years less than before the organization reform. This is significant progress. However, if we do not continue selecting young and middle-aged cadres for promotion, after 2 years, their average age will again increase to more than 60 years old. It can thus be seen that if we relax our work a bit or do our work in art on-and-off way, it will be difficult for us to fundamentally free ourselves from a passive position. Therefore, it is imperative to reform the cadre system and to guarantee that the work of making the ranks of cadres become more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized is institutionalized.
The shift of the focus of the party's work and the organizational and structural reforms require us to reform the unsuitable aspects of the cadre system. This is a historical necessity. The two go hand in hand. If we shut our eyes to the needs of development of the situation and do not enthusiastically and resolutely reform the aspects of the cadre system in which conditions are ripe and reform them partially, this will greatly delay our work. On the contrary, things will go contrary to our wishes if we regard this reform as a simple thing or take any hasty action. In reforming the present cadre system, it is first necessary to strictly implement the decision of the party Central Committee concerning the retirement of old cadres. The retirement of the old cadres at various levels must be carried out in accordance with the regulations of the party Central Committee concerning the method of reckoning age. Apart from some specific veteran comrades who have passed the age limit for retirement but are required to stay in the leading bodies by the decision of the party organizations concerned, the overwhelming majority of the old cadres must retire on the basis of doing a good job of persuasion and making proper arrangements for them. Good care must be given to the retiring old cadres and attention must be paid to bringing their role into play.
While their health permits, these comrades are encouraged to continue to make contributions to the party and the state within their power. When everybody is gradually accustomed to the implementation of the retirement system of cadres through years of efforts, the normal succession of the old by the new will be ensured institutionally. Of course, this system alone is far from sufficient. We must still establish and perfect the job responsibility system for cadres of various types and at various levels from top to bottom in the light of the organizational reform and the systems of assessment, promotion and demotion, and rewards and penalties for cadres which are suited to the job responsibility system; we must further perfect the systems of democratic election and appointment and removal of cadres in the light of perfecting political life and in accordance with the stipulations of the party and the state constitutions. Reform of the cadre system is a new thing. We will surely encounter many difficulties. However, if we fail to resolutely carry out the reform, we are bound to encounter more and greater difficulties. We hope that everyone will work strenuously in this respect and strive to lay a good foundation for further reforming the cadre system through the organizational reform of the units at various levels.
Finally, I would like to discuss the question of vigorously intensifying the education and training of cadres. The rapidly developing socialist modernization program requires us to continuously train and bring up cadres who are more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized in larger quantities and of better quality and to funda- mentally raise the quality of the whole contingent of cadres. This is a matter of strategy which has a bearing on the success or failure of our cause. In order to solve this problem, our country is stepping up its efforts and reforming the school educational work so as to infuse new blood into the ranks of cadres. One important task at present and for a period of time to come is that our work should be based on the universal raising of the standard of existing cadres. Apart from continuing to persist in training and tempering the cadres in practice, it is still necessary to train them on a large scale. Recently, the party Central Committee made a decision of strategic importance on training cadres on the job in rotation and urged the party schools at all levels, cadre schools run by government organizations and enterprises, and especially designated institutions of higher education and the specialized secondary schools to shoulder the regular training of cadres in their different capacities. In the future, in our use and promotion of cadres, we must attach importance to educational background and academic records as well as to experience and achievements in work. Therefore, cadres of various types and at all levels must try their best to acquire a certain level of formal learning and of educational knowledge. All cadres who are working and who do not possess the level of cultural knowledge needed in their work should be trained in rotation by stages.
There must be an assessment examination in the vocational training and academic records will be one of the important bases for making appropriate adjustments of cadres. At present, some localities and departments have not attached due importance to the work of training cadres and there are also some cadres who are unwilling to take part in study. This is wrong and must be rectified. We must launch a sustained upsurge for study among the cadres at various levels throughout the nation for the sake of the grand cause of socialist modernization; an upsurge in which people study Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, acquire general knowledge, master scientific and technical know-how and operational and management techniques and study all that is needed to build a high level of socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization. In the last few years, more than 8,100 party schools and specialized cadre schools at various levels have been restored and newly built and the ranks of cadres teaching in such schools have developed into an approximately 100,000-strong contingent; more than 130 institutions of higher education have run special training courses for cadres; the various localities, departments and some medium and large-sized enterprises have run large numbers of cadre training courses, and the number of cadres who have been trained in rotation and received vocational training has increased year after year. According to statistics, the number of leading cadres at county level throughout the country who were trained in rotation from 1979 to 1981 reached more than 200,000, constituting more than half the total of cadres of this category.
Although our work of educating and training cadres is still far from perfect, we have at long last made a good beginning and also accumulated some experience. So long as we make persistent and unremitting efforts and continue to march ahead along the lines of regularization and institutionalization, by the next national party congress, greater progress will surely be made in the quality, both political and professional, of the whole con- tingent of our cadres, greater improvement will certainly be achieved in the extent to which they are more revolutionary, younger in average age and more knowledgeable and specialized, and new and heartening successes will surely be scored in socialist modernization.