China's Organization Chief Urges Stronger Grassroots Governance

Shi Taifeng, head of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Organization Department, emphasized strengthening grassroots governance and Party leadership during a symposium in Beijing on September 18. Addressing officials, Shi called for the systematic study and application of Xi Jinping's discourses on grassroots work methods. He instructed cadres to uphold the Party Central Committee's centralized authority, solve urgent public concerns, and rigorously rectify bureaucratic formalism to relieve administrative burdens on frontline officials.

As the head of the party's personnel machinery, Shi Taifeng's directives signal key criteria for cadre evaluations, promotions, and organizational oversight nationwide. The continued emphasis on reducing administrative burdens while tightening ideological and political control underscores the leadership's drive to maintain local compliance and social stability without paralyzing local administration with excessive paperwork.

China must consolidate its governing foundation by deepening the study and application of Xi Jinping's methods for grassroots work, according to Shi Taifeng, head of the Central Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Shi delivered the remarks at a specialized study symposium held in Beijing on September 18, state media outlets reported. Shi, who sits on the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau, described Xi's discourses on grassroots governance as the theoretical and practical crystallization of the party's local work experience. He stated that these teachings provide an essential framework and operational guide for strengthening governance and supporting Chinese modernization from the ground up. During his address, Shi instructed party organizations to integrate these concepts into cadre education, conduct in-depth theoretical research, and translate academic study into concrete administrative outcomes. He stressed that grassroots work must maintain the party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee, ensuring that local administrative systems advance strictly along the designated political path. Shi also emphasized a people-centered approach, urging officials to consolidate the results of recent education campaigns on fostering a 'correct view of performance.' He called on cadres to practice the party's traditional 'mass line' by proactively addressing the most urgent and difficult problems facing regular citizens. Crucially, the organization chief underscored the need for pragmatism and fact-based administration. He called for wide-ranging field investigations, adherence to objective economic and social laws, and a decisive campaign against bureaucratic formalism to ease administrative burdens on overburdened grassroots personnel. Finally, Shi demanded strict accountability in internal party discipline. He instructed personnel departments to coordinate party-building across all local sectors, tighten the supervision and education of grassroots cadres, and ensure that the party's drive for comprehensive self-governance extends fully to the community level.