Sun's disciplinary case sounds an alarm bell for Party

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a decision on Friday to expel Sun Zhengcai, former Chongqing Party chief, from the Party, dismiss him from public office and transfer the case involving his suspected crimes to the judiciary.

The timely discovery of and thorough investigation into Sun's "serious discipline violations" before the 19th National Congress of the CPC, scheduled to open on Oct 18, fully demonstrates the resolute will and unambiguous attitude of the CPC Central Committee, with comrade Xi Jinping as the core, to adhere to the Party's self-management and promote stricter self-governance, and also fully incarnates the Party's firm determination and unflinching mettle to carry through to the end the fight against corruption and the building of the Party style and clean governance.

As a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee when investigated, Sun should have made himself an example for others and taken the lead to fulfill Party principles. However, he was found to have oscillated on those ideals and faith, betrayed Party principles and lost his political stance. He was found to have seriously violated the Party's political discipline and rules, its eight-point conduct on frugality and its mass discipline and organizational discipline. He was also found to have seriously violated Party discipline on integrity, its working discipline and the discipline of life. Sun did not refrain from doing this after the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012, and his glaring wrongdoing has caused strong reactions from the people. With his malpractice, Sun has completely deviated from Party principles, violated the trust of the top leadership and the expectations of the people, caused huge losses to the causes of the Party and nation and brought extremely negative consequences to society. The thorough investigation into Sun's case will be of great significance in eliminating hidden dangers within the Party, giving force to Party discipline and purifying the Party team. It once again proves the Party has strong self-purification, self-correction, self-innovation and self-improvement capabilities.

Corruption is a tumor that has intruded into the Party's healthy body, and the campaign for stricter self-governance of the Party is a war, but without the smoke of gunpowder. To persistently fight corruption, unwaveringly resect the tumor and resolutely win the battle against corruption are requirements of adherence to our Party's nature and principles and its bid to promote stricter self-governance. Sun's case reminds us that despite achieving a significant victory in fighting corruption, the Party's anti-corruption battle still faces grim and complicated circumstances. That means the Party must continuously advance its anti-corruption campaign, continuously maintain high pressure on and zero-tolerance toward corruption, keep unchanged stern punishments on wrongdoers and probe any corruption clues to resolutely eradicate "sources" of corruption.

What means can the Party resort to for better self-management and stricter self-governance? It should put in place unambiguous Party discipline and keep a close watch on the "key few" leading officials. To abide by discipline and rules, officials must first abide by political discipline and rules. From Zhou Yongkang to Bo Xilai, Xu Caihou, Guo Boxiong, Ling Jihua and Su Rong, and to the most recent Sun Zhengcai, their serious violations of Party discipline can invariably be traced to their abandoning of the political stance they should possess as Party members, their serious sabotage of political discipline and their serious violation of Party principles on "centralized unity". Sun's case once again sounds the alarm bell to the whole Party that leading officials, senior ones in particular, must consolidate their political stance, firmly establish the "Four Consciousnesses"－the ideology, the whole, the core and the line－continuously consolidate their loyalty to the Party and constantly remind themselves that the high positions held by them should not lead to power trampling and pursuit of selfish interests.

The Party's self-governance campaign is forever on the road. Party organizations at various levels and all Party members, especially various levels of leading officials, should unite their thinking and actions with the spirit of the top leadership, use Sun's case as a negative example from which to learn lessons, further practice various significant initiatives taken by the top leadership to promote stricter self-governance of the Party and fight corruption, and ideologically and politically keep them in line with the spirit of the CPC Central Committee with President Xi Jinping as the core. All Party members should keep a serious intra-Party political life and remain self-restrained and self-disciplined in the use of power to brace for the upcoming 19th National Congress of the CPC.

Editorial opinion from People's Daily, Sept 30