Fostering a New Breed of Officials

By staff reporter HOU RUILI

ALMOST as old as the Communist Party of China (CPC) itself, the Party School of the CPC Central Committee has been the center of learning for China's top leaders for some eight decades, equipping the country's highest officials and up-and-coming young leaders with the academic tools and knowledge needed to fulfil their potential.

Since the 1930s, the school has served as a venue where the ideals central to the CPC are explored and where solidarity within government is cultivated. All of China's great leaders pass through the school at one time or other. In fact, the post of the Party School president is traditionally held by a state leader. Its former occupants have seen such figures as Chairman Mao Zedong, PRC President Liu Shaoqi, and Hu Jintao. Currently headed by Vice President Xi Jinping, the school has had a long history of success and has even been used by several developing countries as a model for establishments educating their own ruling elite.

From Yan'an to Beijing 

The top leadership of China has always attached supreme importance to learning, with group study sessions a part of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee's work schedule, and the Party School is just one of four academic institutions that provide further education to high- and medium-ranking officials in central and local governments.

 The Party School's original home was in Yan'an, where the CPC had their headquarters during the 1930s and 1940s. It was in this period that much of the CPC's early thought was developed and put into practice while China was beset with many competing forces, including the Kuomintang, Japan, and local warlords, all struggling for power.

 "During his years in Yan'an, Mao Zedong made many of his historic speeches at the Party School, and regarded it as a front for emancipating minds and unifying hearts," said Wang Chengzhi, deputy chief of the Teaching Affairs Department. "Though confronted with the pressing dual task of economic development and carrying out military campaigns, the communist authority sent many of its military and political cadres to the Party School. Effective education of its core members was critical in the CPC's triumph over the Kuomintang."

After the founding of the PRC the Party School was moved to its current location in Beijing and continued to offer learning to top officials. However, during the decade of the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) its doors were closed and not reopened until 1978, when the policy of opening-up and reform was launched. After the recent political chaos, the nation was eager to revitalize its wrecked economy, and the school was yet again to educate the leaders that would play an essential role in shaping a new China. Since then, China's situation and needs and the officials that pass through the school have changed, and the Party School has had to adapt to continue to effectively serve its role in the nation.

Adapting to a New Generation

 A short walk from the sumptuous imperial playground of the Summer Palace in the very northwest of Beijing, the campus is a hotchpotch of architectural styles that recall the turbulent changes that China went through in the 20th century. Some buildings feature the carved beams typical of China's imperial buildings, while the central building, built with materials left over from the construction of the Great Hall of the People that overlooks Tian'anmen Square and is home to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, is typical of the early years of the People's Republic of China. Perhaps the strangest are those buildings modelled on the cave-homes typical of Yan'an, which hark back to the establishment's humble beginnings.

It is here that the Party School's annual enrolment of 3,000 students come to study. They come straight from key posts in the army, CPC and government organizations, having started low in the ranks and gained political experience and credit through long years of dedication.  Now, having reached such responsible positions, they return to education for periods ranging from a few short months to years. At the school they learn about the policies and theories formulated by the CPC Central Committee, new advances in knowledge and methods and the latest happenings, and hone their practical problem-solving skills.

"Today the majority of Chinese ministers, provincial governors and department and administration directors were born in the 1950s and 1960s. They were in their late teens or early 20s when opening-up and reform kicked off and at an age when one's view of life and the world is taking shape. They are the group among whom the Party's policies and ideas on state governance are supported most. But these people in general didn't receive a good education when they were at school age, and many are not good at any foreign language," commented Xie Chuntao, a professor at the Party School who, born in 1963, is a member of this generation himself. "Now officials born in the 1970s are rising. They grew up with China's opening-up and reform, and most received college education. They are of a generation with broader vision and new thinking and are competent in at least one foreign language."