The party wants to manage the party and govern the party strictly. It depends on strict discipline. In October 1964, Comrade Zhou Enlai said in his report at the meeting of performers of the music and dance epic "Dongfang Hong" that Comrade Mao Zedong said that our party is "a party that is disciplined, armed with Marxist-Leninist theory, adopts the method of self-criticism, and is in touch with the masses," and that "it is no accident that Comrade Mao Zedong especially put discipline in the forefront." This is because this is the primary condition that determines whether the Party can persist in the revolution, defeat the enemy, and strive for victory." Problems with cadres are all due to breakthroughs in discipline. It is necessary to strictly enforce party discipline, and all aspects of party discipline must be strict. Observing the party's discipline is unconditional, and it is necessary to do what it says, to enforce discipline and to investigate those who violate it, and to enforce what is not agreeable, and not to enforce what is not agreeable, and not to regard discipline as a soft constraint or a dead letter that is put on the shelf.

——Speech at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (January 14, 2014)

Further reading:

"Dongfang Hong" is a large-scale music and dance epic for the 15th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, with Zhou Enlai as the chief director. It took only two months to produce "Dongfang Hong", but more than 3,500 people participated. This work was first staged at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the evening of October 2, 1964, and has been performed for 14 consecutive performances since then. "Dongfang Hong" reproduces through song and dance the arduous revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China after the founding of the Communist Party of China, and finally achieved national independence and people's liberation. This work condenses our party's struggle from small to large and from weak to strong into a song and dance epic that can be sung and cried.

Zhou Enlai not only cares about the creation itself, but also cares about the ideological work of all the cast and crew. In order to familiarize everyone with the arduous course of the CPC in leading the Chinese people to build a new China, he gave a report on party history in the Great Hall of the People for several hours, and the vivid report made everyone understand the hardships of the victory of the revolution, cherished today's life, unified everyone's thinking, and aroused everyone's enthusiasm for performances.

"Put discipline in the forefront", this sentence in Zhou Enlai's report, can be regarded as the "password" for the Communist Party of China to move from victory to victory. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other proletarian revolutionaries of the older generation all attached great importance to discipline, and not only left rich expositions, but also personally upheld the authority of discipline. In the autumn of 1927, on the way to Jinggang Mountain, some soldiers pulled sweet potatoes from the people's fields, which caused Mao Zedong to think. Soon after, he announced three disciplines to the troops, one of which was "not to take a single sweet potato from the peasants," and "three disciplines and six points of attention" were triggered by this sweet potato. Zhou Enlai also strictly demanded himself and the people around him with discipline. During the Yan'an rectification period, the organs of the Southern Bureau arranged one day a week as the party day, and the main responsible comrades of a certain department were old party members who joined the party during the Great Revolution. When Zhou Enlai saw it, he called him up and said earnestly: "Are you abiding by the discipline of study?" "The older the party is, the more we must consciously abide by discipline!"

Xi Jinping tells the story of the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries and quotes the classic words of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others, all to emphasize the extreme importance of "discipline". From the revolutionary years when the flames of war were raging, to the era of construction in full swing, to the period of vigorous reform, strict discipline is an important magic weapon for our party to advance from victory to victory.

Xi Jinping has a clear understanding of the strict governance of the party and has clear requirements for strict discipline. When he met with Chinese and foreign journalists for the first time in his capacity as general secretary, he loudly declared that "striking iron requires its own strength" and demanded that "the whole party must be vigilant." Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the two-pronged approach of anti-corruption and style reform has not only removed tumors and purified the ecology, but also cured diseases and saved people to strengthen their health. The key to this, as Xi Jinping said, is that "discipline cannot be treated as a soft constraint or a dead letter."