Beijing, May 21 (Xinhuanet.com, Shen Lutao reporting) – In his recent interview with a Xinhua News Agency reporter, Wang Jiarui, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, stated that the Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee have set a good example in participating in the activities of the education campaign carried out in primary level organizations to preserve the advanced nature of Party members. They made investigations in these organizations and gave guidance to their work. All this fully demonstrates the good care and attention shown by the Central Committee for the campaign and the realistic and pragmatic work style of the central collective leadership with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary. The International Department is conscientiously studying and implementing the important directives given by the Members of the Standing Committee. In order to improve the Party’s governance capacity, preserve its members’ advanced nature, and connect Party members’ actual way of thinking with the education campaign being carried out in the department to preserve their advanced nature, the department constantly encourages its Party members and cadres to further fortify their ideals and convictions, uphold the Party’s purposes, strengthen their commitment to the Party, improve their theoretical understanding and professional competence, and demonstrate their advanced nature as workers in the field of Party diplomacy.

Wang also said that a series of important directives from the Members of the Standing Committee have provided important guidance for the International Department’s intensive education campaign to preserve the advanced nature of its Party members by setting forth both general requirements for the education campaign and explicit guidelines for specific work. Through study, Party members in the department have deepened their understanding of the great importance of the education campaign, become more enthusiastic about it and begun to take part in it more consciously. All Party members in the department are participating in the education campaign actively. They are vigorously adopting the “four perseveres” in carrying out the campaign to ensure they achieve practical results. The four perseveres are as follows.

First, persevering in following the guidance of the important thought of Three Represents over the Party’s external work. This is an important guarantee that the International Department does its work well in the new period. This means the Party members should be realistic and innovative, constantly break new ground, and continue to adapt the Party’s external work to international and domestic changes. In this way, the Party’s external work will more closely follow the direction in which the Party and the state are developing their undertakings and reflect the characteristics of the times. It also means further defining the position of the Party’s external work in the Party’s general undertakings and in the state’s overall diplomacy, focusing on the country’s central task, serving its overall interests, and effectively integrating efforts to study and implement the important thought of Three Represents with efforts to constantly achieve better results in the Party’s external work.

Second, persevering in carrying out the education campaign with the help of the people and fully arousing their enthusiasm for it. At the stage of study and training, we achieved consensus by relying on the people. After four rounds of discussions, all Party members and cadres in the department reached consensus on what needs to be done for preserving the advanced nature of Party members and on the main problems that need to be solved during the campaign, thus clarifying the direction we should take. At the stage of analysis and evaluation, we relied on the people in correctly identifying the main problems, conscientiously correlated the functionaries’ positions and work duties, and made it possible for Party members and cadres at different levels to seek the opinions of as many non-Party people as possible. At the stage of rectification and improvement, we relied on the people in solving problems. We carried out the campaign “My Suggestions for Rectification and Improvement in the International Department” to solicit opinions extensively in the department and accepted all the rational suggestions that were made.

Third, persevering in pursuing positive education and self-education and further stimulating Party members’ self-motivation. During the education campaign, the International Department held an exhibition on its own history. Its Party members visited it and received education from the department’s history, the mode of conduct and the fine traditions. Lectures based on the results of the department’s research on the deep-rooted causes of the drastic changes taking place in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe helped our Party members fortify their communist ideals and convictions and enhanced their confidence in taking the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. On the basis of the education campaign, we identified excellent Party members and organizations and publicized and learned from these nearby models of progressiveness. At the stage of analysis and evaluation, we gave play to the initiative of all Party members and strengthened guidance over their activities with notable results. In the process, Party members spoke their minds freely to each other, though they had worried about the consequences of doing so at the beginning. Instead of waiting to be asked by their leaders about their opinion, Party members competed with each other to air their opinions concerning their leaders. Some of them shifted from regarding criticism and self-criticism as a burden to considering them as an effective “weapon” for strengthening solidarity.

Fourth, persevering in rectifying problems in the process of study and discussion while focusing on solving significant problems. The International Department proposed incorporating rectification in its work, following the examples of advanced individuals and collectives, searching out inadequacies, formulating rectification measures, and ensuring that problems that can be rectified are rectified immediately. For example, in order to take more initiative in our Party’s contacts with its international counterparts and make the contacts more meaningful and timely, the department has begun to categorize the foreign delegations it receives and the delegations it sends abroad, control the total number, and concentrate on improving the quality and results of visits by important delegations. The department has further strengthened coordination and management of its research work by holding training courses and giving a series of lectures on research work. At the stage of rectification and improvement, the department implemented a system of supervision to ensure that the rectification tasks are fulfilled.

Last but not least, Wang stated that the International Department will follow the example of the Members of the Standing Committee by having its Party leaders at all levels to set an example in the education campaign and through their own deeds to encourage other Party members to plunge into the campaign so as to ensure that the campaign achieves practical results and becomes a project that the people are satisfied with.