Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 9, 2026 — Reporter Wang Ziming’s commentary, the ninth in a series on studying and implementing the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, examines one of the tasks set by the session.

The plenary session reviewed and adopted the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning the Persistent Advancement of Full and Rigorous Party Self-Governance. The Decision sets out seven strategic tasks and major measures. One is to adhere to governing the Party through institutions and in accordance with regulations. It arranges work in three areas: improving the system of intra-Party regulations, strengthening enforcement of institutions, and vigorously eliminating hidden rules.

Governing the Party through institutions and regulations means using systems to manage power, affairs, and people, and confining power within an institutional framework. General Secretary Xi Jinping has stated that strict Party governance depends on ideological education and, even more, on institutional guarantees; relying on institutions is a long-term and fundamental strategy and an important experience. The commentary says the new journey should be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building, with continued strengthening of intra-Party regulations so that institutional advantages are better turned into governance effectiveness and the Party’s long-term stability is firmly safeguarded.

Improving the intra-Party regulatory system

In February 2026, the revised Regulations on Clean Conduct of Leading Personnel of State-Owned Enterprises were issued. The rules use a negative list of seven categories and 58 prohibited acts to set clear boundaries for the exercise of power in state-owned enterprises. The commentary describes each regulation as a gate and governance according to rules as a basic method of managing the Party.

It recalls that the Party has long built intra-Party rules, from the party program of the First Congress and the party constitution of the Second Congress, through the post-1949 resolution on strengthening Party unity and the criteria on intra-Party political life adopted after reform and opening up. Since the 18th National Congress, under the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the scale and results of this work have been unprecedented. As of June 2026, 2,674 intra-Party regulations had been formulated or revised, accounting for 79 percent of those currently in force, and a relatively complete system had taken shape.

The Decision calls for scientific planning of regulatory work; coordinated enactment, revision, abolition, and interpretation; greater systematic integration and supporting linkages; rules aimed at prominent problems that are convenient and effective; and a stronger mechanism linking intra-Party regulations with state laws so as to avoid overreach, overlap, or gaps. The aim is a denser and firmer institutional framework that is executable, supervisable, inspectable, and subject to accountability, dense but not cumbersome, and both legally complete and practically simple.

Strengthening enforcement

On October 27, 2026, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission released the nationwide summary for September 2026 of cases involving violations of the spirit of the central eight-point regulation. It was the 157th consecutive month of such monthly data. The commentary says notification of typical cases and serious investigation show a determination to enforce discipline strictly and see matters through.

It states that the life of regulations lies in implementation. Strengthening the rigid constraint of systems is both a requirement of the Decision and a consistent principle. Systems left on paper, on walls, or in drawers become ineffective and damage credibility. Xi Jinping has stressed that great efforts must be made to build systems and set rules, and even greater efforts to ensure implementation and enforcement.

Since the new era, the commentary says, enforcement has been pursued with persistence, beginning with the eight-point regulation, through a responsibility system for implementing intra-Party regulations, strict discipline, and political supervision, so that regulations function as live high-voltage lines. It notes that the drive to basically achieve socialist modernization has entered a critical period of consolidating foundations and making comprehensive efforts; strategic opportunities coexist with risks and challenges; uncertain and hard-to-predict factors are increasing; and the “four tests” and “four dangers” facing the Party will persist for a long time. The more severe the situation, it argues, the more institutional safeguards and enforcement matter.

The Decision urges Party members and officials to study, abide by, implement, and uphold the Party Constitution; greater openness of intra-Party regulations so boundaries and bottom lines are clear and the public can better take part in supervision; and enforcement and supervision throughout the performance of duties and across regional, departmental, sectoral, grassroots, and unit governance. It calls for equality before the system, no special treatment in compliance, no exceptions in enforcement, investigation of every violation, and correction of disobedience so that institutions are hard constraints rather than elastic ones.

Eliminating hidden rules

The commentary describes hidden rules as contrary to the Party’s nature and purpose, corrosive of institutional authority, and harmful to Party and government conduct, and as deeply resented. The Decision’s call to eliminate them is presented as reflecting the Central Committee’s resolve. Since the 18th National Congress, combined measures have produced clear results, yet practices such as cultivating connections for patronage, treating personal relationships as weightier than principles, and treating informal notes as more effective than official seals still exist to varying degrees and require firm resistance.

Xi Jinping has said the fundamental way to break hidden rules is to strengthen explicit rules, let what is upright prevail, and deprive hidden rules of soil, channels, and markets inside the Party and in society. The Decision requires clear rules and greater openness of Party and government affairs; serious investigation of associating with or acting as political brokers and political fraudsters, so that such people have no one to deceive, nowhere to hide, no usable schemes, and no room to grow; and improved mechanisms for dynamic monitoring, assessment, and governance of the political ecosystem as a standing arrangement against the spread of hidden rules.

It calls for sustained effort to entrench explicit rules, correct misconduct while fostering a sound atmosphere, guide officials toward a correct view of performance, and reject clique culture and favor-based thinking so that dependence on hidden rules is removed at the root.

The commentary concludes that sound regulations consolidate the foundation, enforcement establishes authority, and a clean atmosphere removes entrenched problems, and that greater consciousness of institutional and rules-based Party governance is meant to keep full and rigorous self-governance on an institutional track in support of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.

Original article: https://www.news.cn/politics/leaders/20261109/10580332d89945cb8b6cccd975d50c2b/c.html