Small, but essential step

Party leaders have demonstrated their determination to end the extravagance and bureaucracy that threatens rejuvenation

The eight measures aimed at reducing bureaucracy and official extravagance put forward by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China may seem trivial compared to the pledge to rejuvenate China made by Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, on behalf of the new leadership. Yet they are practical steps toward the lofty goal of national rejuvenation that has been cherished by Chinese people for more than 170 years since China fell prey to foreign imperialist invasions during the Opium Wars.

The measures require leaders to reject extravagance and reduce bureaucratic visits and meetings. The spending on officials' trips and inspections should be kept at the minimum necessary level, and there should be fewer traffic controls arranged for their security during official trips to avoid unnecessary inconvenience to the public, the new CPC leadership announced in a statement made less than three weeks after they were elected at the 18th National Congress of the CPC.

The measures also cut the number of people escorting leaders on official domestic and overseas visits, strictly regulate the arrangements of national official meetings and major events, and require improvements in the efficiency of official conferences and the issuing of official documents.

Senior leaders should listen more to the public and officials at grassroots levels, and solve people's practical problems, the statement added.

Although the measures still need to take effect, they show that the new leadership is determined to root out the formalism and bureaucracy that has divorced the Party from the people.

Despite its centuries-old civilization and prosperity, China became decadent and vulnerable to foreign invasions in the 19th century for many reasons. However, one of the main reasons for China's fall was the extravagance and ostentation of the ruling class.

We had warriors who fought against the invaders. We shed endless tears and blood on the way to national salvation and independence. Our forerunners, as Mao Zedong put it before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, had to "fight, fail, fight again, fail again, fight again" until the victory of the people's revolution led by the Communist Party of China. In the struggle for the nation's liberation and independence, there was no room for any ostentation. Bureaucracy might have been inevitable but any sign of the evil style of old times would be criticized and subdued.

But after the victory of the revolution, especially during the years when we strived to modernize the country and became economically stronger, extravagance, ostentation and bureaucracy found their way into leaderships at various levels. The ever-escalating security updates and extravagant arrangements that have accompanied some official trips and ceremonial activities have incurred resentment from the people.