Asahi Shimbun:

We can see in the third resolution on historical issues that "The Party is great not because it never makes mistakes but because it always owns up to its errors, actively engages in criticism and self-criticism, and has the courage to confront problems and reform itself." In countries such as Japan, the people can vote to replace the ruling party when it makes mistakes, but in China, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is the only ruling party, so how exactly does it correct mistakes? If the CPC Central Committee makes mistakes, is there a mechanism to correct them? Thank you.

Tian Peiyan:

I am glad to take your questions. Selflessness makes for fearlessness and honesty. The CPC represents the fundamental interests of all Chinese people, rather than special interests of its own. The progressive character determines that our Party has the courage to confront problems and reform itself. It has successively made three resolutions on historical issues in the course of its century-long struggle, with the first two focusing on distinguishing right from wrong and correcting mistakes, including one Right deviationist and three "Left" deviationist ones during the Democratic Revolution and sweeping ones of the Cultural Revolution after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The third resolution on historical issues adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee focused on summing up major achievements and historical experiences over the past century, but did not evade problems. In doing so, the Party aims to draw lessons from history and gain political wisdom from summarized historical experience so as to better move forward into the future.

Our Party has developed a whole set of effective practices to prevent and correct mistakes after a long period of exploration. We have established a mechanism for sound, democratic, and law-based decision-making to prevent and reduce mistakes at the source. Every major decision made by the CPC Central Committee requires in-depth investigation and study, extensive consultation, and repeated deliberation strictly in accordance with procedures. For example, the Party listened to opinions and suggestions from both inside and outside the Party as well as from all sectors of society on the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee and solicited more than 1 million comments online, from which it extracted more than 1,000 suggestions. From April 15 to May 16, major state media outlets conducted a one-month opinion soliciting activity online on the work related to the 20th CPC National Congress and received more than 8.54 million suggestions from netizens, providing a useful reference for the CPC Central Committee's decision-making. In the process of making and implementing decisions, we have followed up on their effectiveness, paid close attention to their implementation, and promptly identified problems and made corrections.

Our Party attaches great importance to and takes the initiative to use criticism and self-criticism as sharp weapons to review problems and correct mistakes. It organizes leading officials and Party members to carry out regular criticism and self-criticism, comprehensively review the shortcomings and mistakes in their own development and work, and formulate targeted measures for improvement at criticism and self-criticism meetings for principal members of leadership teams and members of grassroots Party organizations. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has presided over well-calibrated criticism and self-criticism meetings for the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee every year, where the central leadership has taken the lead in identifying and rectifying problems, setting an example for the whole Party. The Party has also carried out themed education programs, identified problems, analyzed causes in the spirit of rectification, and focused efforts to address prominent problems of great concern to the people, achieving good results in educating Party members and officials and benefiting the people.

In addition, we have continued to improve the Party and state oversight systems. With intra-party oversight as the leading role, we have worked towards integrating and coordinating various types of oversight to promptly identify and resolve problems and strictly hold relevant organizations and individuals accountable, and lifelong accountability may apply in some cases. Thank you.

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