We will continue to make efforts to eradicate the soil and conditions for corruption

Corruption is the greatest cancer that endangers the party's vitality and combat effectiveness, and the anti-corruption struggle cannot cease for a moment. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Zheng has incorporated the comprehensive and strict governance of the party into the "four comprehensive" strategic layout, raised the anti-corruption struggle to a new height of the most thorough self-revolution, carried out an unprecedented anti-corruption struggle, achieved an overwhelming victory and consolidated it in an all-round way, won the "two historical initiatives", and created a new realm of self-revolution for the century-old party. At the Third Plenary Session of the 20th National Commission for Discipline Inspection, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China emphasized that the anti-corruption struggle in the new journey must continue to exert efforts and advance in depth in the soil and conditions for eradicating corruption. This clearly reflects the sober understanding that the situation in the anti-corruption struggle is still grim and complicated. After the anti-corruption struggle enters the deep-water area, it is necessary to further promote self-revolution and resolutely win the protracted battle of the anti-corruption struggle, and it is necessary to promote the "three non-corruptions" in an integrated manner, deepen the treatment of both the symptoms and the root causes, and systematically deal with them, continuously expand the depth and breadth of the anti-corruption struggle, and promote the normalization and long-term effectiveness of the prevention and control of corruption.

Corruption is a common phenomenon in human society, and its occurrence and evolution have specific soil and conditions. Since the beginning of the new era, the general secretary has made profound expositions on the soil and conditions for eradicating corruption on many occasions with deep historical worries and a high degree of strategic sobriety. From the clear warning at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that "corruption is frequent, and the soil that breeds corruption exists", to the scientific judgment made in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that "the task of eradicating the soil for the breeding of corruption is still arduous", to the second plenary session of the 20th ** Commission for Discipline Inspection to clearly improve the system and mechanism for preventing and controlling the breeding and spread of corruption, and then to the specific strategic deployment made at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th ** Commission for Discipline Inspection. Only by knowing the reason can we get the law; Only by obtaining the law can it be governed well. To explore the global problem of tackling corruption, we must follow the scientific guidance of the general secretary and understand the essential attributes of the soil and conditions in which corruption arises.

Gain a deep insight into the essence of the soil and conditions in which corruption arises. The essence of corruption is the abuse of power. Borrowing ecological theories to analyze the evolution law and system environment of corruption, the soil and conditions for the occurrence of corruption are described, and the sum of the conditions for corruption and the factors that are easy to induce and aggravate corruption. This is a complex and complex system, with complex causes and multiple factors, including unsupervised and unchecked power, which plays a decisive role in the emergence of corruption, and also includes the sum of all the factors that promote the problem of corruption from small to large, the degree of corruption from small to intense, and the trend of corruption from point to line to area, and play a catalytic role in the emergence of corruption. Squeezing the living space of various factors and blocking the interaction between them is of great significance to the control of corruption.

Gain a deep insight into the characteristics and attributes of the soil and conditions in which corruption arises. As an objective social phenomenon, the soil and conditions under which corruption arises are widespread in countries with different historical periods, different social systems, different political systems, and different levels of development, and they have shown distinctive characteristics. For example, it is negative, promotes corruption, damages the political ecology, corrupts the social atmosphere, and erodes the health of the party organization; It is complex, often has multiple causes and one effect, is interdependent and deeply intertwined; It is long-term, the result of the long-term accumulation and superposition of undesirable factors, and it is impossible to completely eradicate it overnight; It is dynamic in nature, and its manifestations are different in different historical periods, environments and regions, and it is necessary to grasp the main contradiction and prescribe the right medicine.

Gain insight into the mechanism of the soil and conditions in which corruption arises. The soil and conditions for corruption play an important role in enhancing motivation, creating opportunities and reducing costs in the process of corruption. Tracing the source of the consequences, the mechanism of action is as follows: in the induction stage, it has an impact on the motive of corruption, erodes the ideological and moral defense line of party members and cadres to resist corruption and prevent degeneration, leads to the loss of immunity, and the idea of corruption. In the boosting stage, create conditions for corruption to occur, especially if there are defects in the system, the unscientific allocation of power, the irregular use of power, and the lack of adequate supervision, those who dare to be corrupt will have an opportunity to take advantage of it. In the strengthening stage, due to the failure to implement the political responsibility of managing the party and governing the party, and the failure to punish violations of discipline and law, the problem of corruption has developed from a small pipe to a major collapse. In the consolidation stage, the combined effect of the soil and conditions for corruption causes a complete deterioration of the political ecology, resulting in the effect of "bad money driving out good money", and then collapse and regional corruption.

The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is the core transportation hub project of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with a total length of 24 kilometers, integrating "bridges, islands, tunnels and underwater interconnection", of which the undersea tunnel is about 6 kilometers long8 km. In the near future, with the completion of the submarine immersed tunnel of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor will form a group of cross-sea and cross-river passages in the Greater Bay Area together with the completed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Nansha Bridge and Humen Bridge.

From a political point of view, the political ecology within the party has not been completely purified. To strengthen party building, we must create a good environment for performing politics, that is, we must have a good political ecology. Since the beginning of the new era, the weakening of the party's leadership and the indifference to the party's concept have been fundamentally reversed, but judging from the practice of the anti-corruption struggle, problems such as impure ideology, impure politics, impure organization, and impure work style still exist, the problem of "seven haves" has not yet been banned, and the problems of speculation, clinging to gangs, and forming circles still occur. The implementation of the responsibility of comprehensively and strictly administering the party is not effective, the main responsibility of some party committees is blurred, the responsibility of the first responsible person of the "number one" is not in place, and even takes the lead in engaging in corruption.

From a cultural point of view, erroneous ideas and concepts are still deeply rooted. Excellent culture creates people, and bad culture corrupts people. The long-term erosion of the culture of corruption, if it is not corrected and guided, can easily bring about a series of evil consequences, such as raising social tolerance, reducing the stigma of corruption, inducing corruption impulses, and promoting corrupt behavior. The erroneous value of "being an official in order to make a fortune, and to become an official in order to make a fortune" still exists, and some leading cadres run counter to the party's nature and purpose, vainly hoping that "power" and "profit" will be obtained and the best of both worlds. The distorted concept of power of "having power not to be used and being invalid when it expires" has not yet been banned, and some leading cadres have no reverence for power, regard public power as a private weapon, arbitrarily dispose of it without restraint, and do everything possible to trade power for money. There is still a market for the unhealthy family style of "one person attaining the Tao, and the chicken and dog are the best", and some leading cadres believe in the style of "sealing their wives and shadows", and they have neglected to manage and educate their families, which has evolved into "family-style corruption".

From the institutional level, the mechanism for supervising and restricting the exercise of power is not yet perfect. To put power in the cage of the system, we must first build the cage. An important reason why corruption in some key areas, key posts, and key links has not been cured for a long time and has been repeatedly corrected is that there are loopholes in the supervision and restraint mechanism, leaving room for power to operate in the dark and to set up rents and seek rents. There are problems of imperfect system construction, insufficient effective supply of supervision systems in some emerging fields, and large discretionary space for power operation, so "unspoken rules" will come into being; There is also the problem that the implementation of the system is not strict, the implementation of the system is discounted, the choice is made, and the flexibility is made, and the problems are not discovered and the deviations are corrected in a timely manner, so that the system has become a "scarecrow" and "paper tiger".

From a social point of view, the erosion of unhealthy tendencies within the party should not be underestimated. The party's style and political style determine the social style and the people's style, and the social style and the people's style react on the party's style and political style. Needless to say, there are still such tendencies in society as climbing power and attaching nobility, entertaining and giving gifts, stressing favors and not governing people, and stressing relationships without rules, and it is very easy to infiltrate the party's style and political style and corrode party members and cadres through political and business exchange channels. The trap of "hunting" cannot be guarded against, and there is no shortage of interest groups of all kinds and lawless businessmen around leading cadres and their relatives who approach, woo, and break through in an organized and premeditated manner, and if they are not careful, they will be "caught" by them.

Comprehensively and strictly administering the party is the great practice of the party's self-revolution in the new era, and the anti-corruption struggle is one of the key battles. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we have accurately grasped the law of corruption governance, creatively put forward and deepened the application of the "three non-corruption" policy and strategy, adhered to the combination of strong symptomatic treatment and deepening of root causes, ideological guidance and institutional constraints, anti-"four winds" anti-privilege and anti-corruption, comprehensive coverage and key breakthroughs, intra-party supervision and mass supervision, and purification of political ecology and social atmosphere, and unswervingly followed the road of anti-corruption with Chinese characteristics, accumulating valuable experience.

In order to strengthen the party's political construction, the root cause is cleared. ** Deeply understand that corruption is the biggest threat to the party's long-term rule, and the fight against corruption is a major political struggle that we cannot afford to lose and must not lose. We must always regard the party's political construction as a fundamental construction, effectively enhance the courage of self-revolution, improve the ability of self-purification, and form political immunity for detoxification and sterilization. It has made the decisive political choice of "two establishments", established the highest political principle and fundamental political rules of "two safeguards", and educated and guided the majority of party members and cadres to temper their political character of loyalty to the party. Serious political life within the party, develop a positive and healthy political culture within the party, strengthen political supervision, deepen political inspections, purify the political ecology within the party, and promote political integrity. We should give prominence to political standards, strictly control the selection and appointment of personnel, strictly prevent corruption among officials, and constantly purify the contingent of cadres into a "pool of clear water." Persisting in the anti-corruption struggle first of all from a political point of view, focusing on the "seven haves", strictly enforcing political discipline and political rules, eliminating major political hidden dangers in a timely manner, and ensuring that the party will not degenerate, change its color, and change its taste.

We will fight corruption with heavy fists and strengthen strong deterrence. ** We are profoundly aware that as long as there is the soil and conditions for the problem of corruption to arise, the anti-corruption struggle cannot be stopped for a moment, and the trumpet must always be sounded. Only by maintaining zero tolerance and deterrence, and by keeping the force of high-pressure punishment always there, can those who intend to be corrupt dare not take half a step beyond the thunder pool. Adhere to the main tone of strictness unswervingly, start with the formulation and implementation of the first eight regulations, grasp the party spirit, party style and party discipline together, and promote the anti-"four winds" anti-corruption and anti-privilege in an integrated manner, stop some unhealthy tendencies that have not been stopped for a long time, rectify some stubborn diseases that have not been eliminated for many years, and the party style and government style have taken on a new look, leading the social style and people's style to improve. Adhere to no forbidden areas, full coverage, and zero tolerance, adhere to heavy containment, strong pressure, and long-term deterrence, adhere to the joint investigation of bribery, insist that all cases must be investigated, and corruption must be punished, and "fight tigers", "fly swatting" and "fox hunting" multi-pronged approach, deepen systematic governance in key areas where corruption is prone to occur frequently, and continuously improve the efficiency of corruption governance. We have built a pattern of anti-corruption work under the overall leadership of the Party, promoted anti-corruption national legislation, and provided a strong organizational and legal guarantee for the anti-corruption struggle.

Tighten the cage of the system by continuing to deepen reform. **Deeply aware that as long as public power exists, there must be restraint and supervision. If you are not locked in the cage of the system, there is a risk that public power will be abused. It is necessary to use reform to reduce the space for rent-seeking and rent-seeking, and to prevent power from being capricious with institutional rigidity. Adhere to the statutory powers and responsibilities, comprehensively deepen the reform of the Party and state institutions, sort out and clarify the statutory powers of various departments, establish a list of powers, a negative list, and a list of responsibilities, and establish rules for the operation of power; Continue to deepen reform, promote the transformation of functions, and strengthen the body with power. Adhere to the transparency of power and responsibility, improve the mechanism for the disclosure of the use of power, promote the operation of power under the sun, and reduce and prevent "black-box operations". Adhere to the unity of power and responsibility, pay close attention to all aspects of the operation of power, improve the prevention mechanism for discovering problems in a timely manner, and the correction mechanism for accurately correcting deviations, and promote the impartial, lawful, honest and civil use of power.

Strengthen restraint and supervision by improving the supervision system. ** Deeply aware that we must improve the system of restraint and supervision of the operation of power, have the right to be responsible, use the power to be supervised, dereliction of duty to be accountable, illegal to be investigated, to ensure that the power given by the people is always used for the benefit of the people. It is necessary to improve the supervision system of the Party's unified leadership, comprehensive coverage, authority and efficiency, enhance the seriousness, coordination and effectiveness of supervision, and ensure that the power entrusted by the Party and the State always seeks the happiness of the people. Adhere to the leadership of intra-Party supervision, formulate and implement the "Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Intra-Party Supervision", and the overall supervision of Party committees (Party groups), the special supervision of discipline inspection commissions and supervision commissions, the functional supervision of Party work departments, the daily supervision of Party grass-roots organizations, and the democratic supervision of Party members play a coordinated role. Continue to deepen the reform of the discipline inspection and supervision system, set up national and local supervision commissions at all levels, and co-operate with discipline inspection commissions at the same level, improve the power supervision pattern of discipline supervision, supervision supervision, stationed supervision, and patrol supervision, and achieve full coverage of intra-Party supervision and supervision of public employees. Give full play to the role of all kinds of supervision subjects, promote the integration and coordination of intra-party supervision and people's congress supervision, democratic supervision, administrative supervision, judicial supervision, audit supervision, financial and accounting supervision, statistical supervision, mass supervision, and supervision, and form a joint force of supervision with the same questions and answers and normal and long-term effects.

Build a strong ideological line of defense by strengthening normal education. **Deeply realize that vacillation of ideals and beliefs is the most dangerous vacillation, and the slippage of ideals and beliefs is the most dangerous landslide. We must persist in using the party's innovative theories to forge our souls, strengthen our foundation with the belief that "the revolutionary ideal is higher than heaven," ensure firmness in action with firmness in theory, and ensure sobriety in the use of power with ideological sobriety. Taking firm ideals and beliefs as the primary task of the party's ideological construction, it has successively carried out the party's mass line education and practice activities, the special education of "three stricts and three realities", the study and education of "two studies and one action", the theme education of "not forgetting the original intention and keeping the mission in mind", the study and education of party history, and the theme education of studying and implementing the socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and guiding the whole party to solve the general switch problem of world outlook, outlook on life and values. Give full play to the role of the culture of honesty in enlightening wisdom and nourishing the heart, strengthen the construction of a culture of integrity in the new era, strengthen the construction of family education and family style, vigorously promote the values of loyalty and honesty, fairness and decency, honesty and integrity, and guide party members and cadres to temper their party spirit and enhance their ability to resist corruption and prevent degeneration.

At the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Commission for Discipline Inspection, the general secretary profoundly expounded the overall requirements, principles and strategies, key areas and key tasks of the anti-corruption struggle in the new journey. To forge ahead on the new journey of building a strong country and national rejuvenation, we must follow the important ideas of the general secretary on the party's self-revolution, continue to maintain strategic focus, adhere to the strict tone, strict measures and strict atmosphere for a long time, promote the in-depth development of the anti-corruption struggle, and create a clean atmosphere and a positive political ecology for Chinese-style modernization.

Resolutely uphold the authority and centralized and unified leadership. The more severe and complex the situation and the more arduous the task, the more necessary it is to strengthen centralized and unified leadership and consolidate and develop a vivid situation in which the whole party works together. Give full play to the party's political, organizational, and institutional advantages, and strengthen the party's all-round and whole-process leadership over anti-corruption work from the aspects of decision-making, deployment, and command, integration of resources and forces, and use of measures and means, so as to ensure that the party firmly grasps the leading power in the anti-corruption struggle and ensures that the anti-corruption struggle always maintains a firm and correct political direction. Strictly enforce political discipline and political rules, keep a close eye on the "seven haves" problem, resolutely prevent "small circles", "worship the dock" and "set up antennas", severely punish political leaders and political brokers, and urge the whole party to firmly support the "two establishments" and resolutely achieve the "two safeguards", and defend the party's unity and unity with iron discipline.

Continue to maintain a high-pressure posture of punishing corruption. The stubborn and repetitive nature of the problem of corruption determines that the anti-corruption struggle cannot tolerate the slightest compromise or concession, and we must resolutely fight corruption without turning back, not slackening our efforts in the high-pressure fight against corruption, and not showing mercy in the iron-faced fight against corruption, so that those who engage in corruption will pay a heavy price and those who want to engage in corruption will lose their illusions. Severely punish corruption in collusion between government and business as the top priority in tackling tough problems, and strictly prevent interest groups and powerful groups from colluding with each other, gaining momentum, and infiltrating into the political field. Deepen the rectification of corruption in areas such as finance, state-owned enterprises, energy, medicine, and infrastructure projects, where power is concentrated, capital-intensive, and resource-rich, and the whole system is promoted through projects, and comprehensively carry out doxxing of clues, investigation and handling of cases, and promotion of reform and governance, and strive for the best results with overwhelming force. Repeat bribery, large amounts of bribes, bribes to multiple people, and endanger one party's political ecology are to be dealt with strictly and severely, clarifying the criteria for defining improper gains from bribery and the scope of recovery, increasing the force of corrections, improving joint disciplinary action mechanisms, and curbing the motives for engaging in corruption that are "profitable".

Improve the system and mechanism for preventing and controlling corruption. The anti-corruption struggle has entered a deep-water area, and with regard to some corruption problems that are prone to frequent occurrence and rectification, we must start with the system and exert efforts to carry out reforms, so as to ensure that prevention and punishment are planned, arranged, and implemented together. Grasp the key powers such as policy-making, decision-making, approval and supervision, take multiple measures to govern the system, govern the power of science and technology, and expose the power to the sun, strengthen the whole process, all elements, and all-round control from the source to the end, and reduce the improper interference of power in microeconomic activities. Establish and improve the regulatory system for emerging fields, plug loopholes, and reduce the space for rent-seeking and rent-seeking. Establish a linkage mechanism for early warning and punishment of corruption, strengthen the analysis and research of new characteristics such as the mutation of corruption methods, renovation and upgrading, and strengthen the rapid handling of new types of corruption and hidden corruption.

Further improve the anti-corruption laws and regulations. The laws and regulations are fundamental, overall, stable and long-term. Only by permeating the entire process and links of the anti-corruption struggle with the concept and methods of the rule of law can we achieve the normalization and long-term effectiveness of preventing and controlling corruption. Focusing on the integration of the "three non-corruptions", improve the basic laws and regulations, and improve and strengthen the supervision and supporting systems for the "top leaders" and leading groups. Adhere to the combination of centralized education and regular education within the party, do a good job in discipline education and discipline enforcement, strengthen the supervision and inspection of the implementation of key laws and regulations, and ensure that all laws and regulations become rigid constraints.

Strengthen the construction of a culture of integrity in the new era. To eradicate the soil and conditions for the problem of corruption, we must rely not only on taking drastic medicine to get rid of the problem and reinforcing the rule of law, but also on cultivating oneself with a righteous mind and cultivating culture, so as to enhance one's self-control in resisting corruption and preventing degeneration. Strengthen the foundation with ideals and beliefs, adhere to the party spirit, party style and party discipline, stimulate the pursuit of lofty ideals by Communist Party members, and regard the abuse of power for personal gain and corruption as a great shame. Take the construction of family education and family style as an important part of the comprehensive and strict governance of the party, and urge leading cadres to cultivate the good family style of communists in the new era, establish good family rules, strict family education, and manage family members well. With the construction of a clean and honest social ecology as the starting point, we should actively publicize the concept of honesty and exemplary integrity, cultivate the modern civilized personality of citizens, and make the new trend of the times of advocating honesty and rejecting corruption continue to fill the whole society.

This article was published in the 05th issue of China Discipline Inspection and Supervision magazine in 2024, author: Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision Theoretical Learning Center Group).