Students of the China Executive Leadership Academy at Jinggang Mountain (CELAJ) experience the same hardships as the Red Amay during the Long March by retracing the "Zhu-Mao Red Army Grain Transport Path" on Jinggang Mountain.	The opening ceremony of the CELAJ.

CHINESE Communist Party cadre training bases, such as the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the National School of Administration, enable public servants to “recharge” through the study of revolutionary traditions, updating their professional knowledge and observation of local cultures.

March 2007 on Jinggang Mountain

A troupe of 35, wearing Red Army uniforms and carrying solid food in their knapsacks, marches through dense forest along the winding “Zhu-Mao Red Army Grain Transport Path” on Jinggang Mountain. It has taken them more than two hours to walk this 4.8-kilometer-long track.

They are middle-aged bureau-level cadres from Central Party and state organizations studying at the China Executive Leadership Academy at Jinggang Mountain (CELAJ). Marching this route is part of the “learning from practice” curricula for new students.

Eighty years ago, the Communist Party of China and troops under its leadership were at their formative stage, and consequently weak. They made Jinggang Mountain their base area for development. Mao Zedong and Zhu De led Red Army grain transportation details as a matter of survival, shouldering more than 150,000 kg of army provision grain along this narrow path. The academy’s aim is to let its students experience personally the hardships that the Red Army suffered through retracing this path.

The CELAJ’s five curricula simulating revolutionary Red Army life include “retracing the Zhu-Mao Red Army Grain Transporting Path,” “cooking Red Army red rice and pumpkin soup” at Leida (Thunder Struck) Rock on Jingzhu Mountain, climbing Lingxiu (Leader) Peak and Wumachaotian (Five Horses Worshiping Heaven) Mountains, and staying in the Red Army Guerrilla Cave.

What most impresses Xie Jun, deputy director of the National Administration of Certification and Accreditation and a trainee at the third central Party and state organizations session for bureau-level cadres, about the CELAJ is its on-the-spot teaching mode. When recalling the 21-day training session on Jinggang Mountain, Xie Jun says, “In the past we learnt revolutionary theory and traditions in the classroom. We now have the opportunity to experience personally life as it was in the Jinggang Mountain Red Base Areas. We have gained a lot from it.”

In addition to learning about revolutionary traditions, trainees also discuss China’s current affairs and issues, such as “economic and social development in central China,” and “building new socialist countryside.” CELAJ courses give trainees from various state organs, such as the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, the State Administration of Taxation, and the National Administration of Certification and Accreditation, the chance to share their respective views on and knowledge of these professional issues.

“Current conditions on Jinggang Mountain are much better than during the 1920s and 1930s, when the first generation of revolutionaries struggled to survive there,” declares Chen Zuofu, vice-president and member of the Party committee of the China Construction Bank. Chen is a trainee at the 23rd CELAJ session on Jinggang Mountain and also attends the one-year class for young and middle-aged cadres at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. He wrote in his summary, “We must set strict demands on ourselves in emulating the Jinggang Mountain and the Long March spirits. In other words, we must tangibly enhance our ability to manage and solve problems and handle emergencies.”

“Assembly Line” Cadre Training

The China Executive Leadership Academy at Jinggang Mountain (CELAJ) is one of three institutes that has been training squads of cadres sent by the CPC Central Committee since 2005. The two others are in Pudong and Yan’an.

Since opening in March 2005, the three academies have graduated more than 20,000 trainees that represent the core of various fronts. Jinggang Mountain was the cradle of Chinese revolution, and Yan’an was where the revolution gathered strength through the struggles and achievements of first-generation revolutionary leader Mao Zedong and his comrades-in-arms. Shanghai is the birthplace of the CPC, and Pudong, designated an open and development zone by Deng Xiaoping, second-generation leader of the CPC, is the bridgehead of China’s reform and opening-up.

The international, contemporary characteristics and openness of the China Executive Leadership Academy in Pudong are in direct contrast to the ambience of the Jinggang Mountain and Yan’an CELAs. Pudong’s courses include the brand-new topics of pertinence, practicality and operation, for example, “evaluation of leader personal characteristics and psychological health,” “the mechanism for responding to emergency and crises,” “leader communications and negotiations skills,” and “international etiquettes for government officials,” which do not generally feature in conventional cadre training.

The Pudong CELA has signed cooperation agreements with a number of international cultural and educational organizations, in particular the British Council in China. It plans to open overseas training bases; negotiations with the US Harvard and Stanford universities as regards opening overseas bases are in process.

Construction of these three academies has formed a new “multi-level, multi-channel and large scale” CPC Central Committee training program pattern. The three academies, together with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the National School of Administration, form an “assembly line” featuring linking-up, networking, integration and serialization. Trainees at the 17th session of the National School of Administration in 2004 were the first “products” of this “assembly line.” They went first to Pudong to be updated on contemporary trends, and later to Jinggang Mountain and Yan’an to become suitably inured in revolutionary traditions.

Origins of the Training Tide

The training “tide” of which Xie Jun and his fellows are a part began in 2002.

New leaders replaced old in the reshuffling of leadership bodies -- from the central authorities to various localities -- that occurred after the 16th CPC National Congress in 2002.

“Major changes in the cadre personnel structure have considerably deepened cadres’ knowledge and experience. Members of the new leadership bodies have relatively high educational standards, but lack experience in revolutionary theory, tradition and ruling experience,” explains Li Xiaosan, executive vice-president of the CELAJ.

Vice-President Li Xiaosan holds that world multipolarization and economic globalization have exerted human-resource pressure on China’s building of socialism with Chinese characteristics since it joined the WTO in 2001. The fierce competition it faces, in the final analysis, boils down to that of talents and the capability to innovate.

“While strengthening education and training in policy, laws and regulations, professional knowledge, and cultural quality and skills, we must also enhance cadres’ capability to innovate as regards revolutionary theory, tradition and ruling experience,” concludes Li Xiaosan.

CELAJ teachers comprise specialists, scholars and scholar-turned leaders from famous schools, research institutes and government departments, as well as successful entrepreneurs from state-owned large and medium-sized enterprises, according to Li Xiaosan. “Our academy combines basic education and training of officials, and guidance as to the relevant demands on officials in their various capacities, levels and posts. We have started classes for provincial-level leaders, bureau-level leaders, middle- and high-ranking managerial personnel in large state-owned enterprises, and for military officers and senior experts.”

“After the 2007 17th CPC National Congress, we will launch another round of large-scale cadre training,” says Zeng Qinghong, member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo and Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.