Party schools strengthen Marxist party of learning

BEIJING -- The Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the CPC's top academy, celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding this March.

The school has fostered a large number of competent officials for the century-old Party since its inauguration. It has played a vital role in advancing the development of the Party and the country.

As the world's largest Marxist governing party, the CPC has always worked to ensure that all its members, especially leading officials, acquire further knowledge.

"To a large extent, we Chinese Communists have relied on learning for our achievements, and we will surely continue to do so in the future," Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said when addressing a celebration assembly on the 80th anniversary of the central Party school in 2013.

Growing from a Marxist Communist school founded in 1933 in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province, the Party school serves as the main channel for training leading Party officials, and as a research institute specializing in the philosophy and social sciences of the CPC.

In the 1940s, Chairman Mao Zedong created a motto for the Party school: "Seeking truth from facts, avoiding empty talk."

Students at the school receive training on the Party's latest theoretical achievements, learn about global trends, and grasp issues essential to the formulation and implementation of Party and state policies. They share their experience of governing. They also have the opportunity to listen to senior Party leaders lecture in person.

On Feb 7, a study session kicked off at the central Party school to help newly elected members and alternate members of the CPC Central Committee, as well as principal officials at the provincial and ministerial levels, learn and put into action the guiding principles established at the 20th CPC National Congress.

At the session, Xi expounded to these senior officials on major theoretical and practical issues pertaining to Chinese modernization. The CPC has emphasized efforts to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization.

Xi attaches great importance to coaching and mentoring officials at the Party's highest academy. It has become routine for him to allocate time in his busy schedule to give lectures there.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, he has given 10 lectures to officials at the provincial and ministerial levels, and another six to young and middle-aged officials at study sessions organized by the central Party school.

"Learning" has been a keyword for the CPC, a Marxist governing party that continues renewing and excelling itself. The Party has underlined the importance of building itself into a Marxist party of learning.

The CPC has built a well-structured Party school system from the central to the local level to train its officials at all levels, and this is regarded as one of the Party's most important political advantages.

The central authority made specific training plans for Party officials, requiring leading officials at or above the county level to receive training at Party schools for no less than two months every five years.

When studying at Party schools, all trainees are subject to strict management, regardless of their rank, according to regulations on the work related to Party schools issued by the CPC Central Committee.

While nurturing capable officials for the Party, these schools are opening their doors wider to the world.

Over the past 90 years, the central Party school has ceaselessly expanded global exchanges and cooperation. By the end of 2019, the school had established ties with 305 institutions in 94 countries and regions, and with 21 international and multilateral organizations. Many political leaders, scholars and business leaders have been invited to the school to deliver speeches and communicate with the faculty and students.