Military, armed police required to study CPC congress spirit'

BEIJING -- The Central Military Commission (CMC) has ordered all units of the People's Liberation Army and armed police to "carefully study and implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC)."

"Studying and implementing the CPC congress spirit should be a primary political mission for the armed forces," the CMC said in an instruction made public Thursday.

"The armed forces should inform all servicemen and women, veterans and civilian staff of the Party congress spirit, officers in particular," the document said.

By the end of next year, officers at regiment-level and above should all receive education courses, and the CMC would conduct inspections "in appropriate time."

From now to June next year, the CMC will dispatch lecturers to major military command areas, while the headquarters of different forces will also send out lecturers to lower units.

Media and academic institutes attached to the military are also required to take an active part in the education campaigns.

Such efforts matter to the overall situation of the work of the Party and the country, the long-term development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the fundamental interests of the general public, according to the CMC document.

It asked Party committees at all levels within the military and armed police to strengthen the organization and leadership in this regard with a "clear political attitude" and "strong political responsibility."

The CMC instruction requires "comprehensive and precise studying and understanding, scientific and prudent publicity, as well as concrete implementation."

"Party committees must strictly perform their duty in ideological work, allowing no channel for wrong ideas and messages to spread," the document said.

It urged the military and armed police forces to seek profound comprehension of the congress's theme, the historic status and rich connotations of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and the historic changes over the past five years.

It also required a "profound understanding of the change in the principal contradiction facing Chinese society, the CPC's mission in the new era, Xi Jinping's thinking on strengthening the military and major policies national defense modernization."

The armed forces should firmly regard Xi's miliary thought as the guideline in strengthening national defense and military, and safeguard the authority and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core, said the document.