Beijing summons thousands of county-level officials to learn the art of ruling

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of CPC Central Committee, hosts a seminar with county Party chiefs at the Central Party School in Beijing on January 12. Photo: Xinhua

County Party secretaries possess a wide range of powers in their jurisdiction. If they abuse their authority, it can do great harm. To consolidate its governing base, the CPC plans to train over 2,800 county chiefs from 27 provinces and autonomous regions within three years, each for two months, from 2015 to 2017. The first batch of around 200 county chiefs already completed their study. This is not the first time for the CPC to conduct such training. However, observers said the CPC has been attaching increasing importance to grass-roots officials who make up the future talent pool of the country's leaders. The General Secretary of CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping, once a county chief himself, also hosted a three-hour seminar with the first batch of county chiefs.

Fang Zhiyong is still thrilled about his meeting with General Secretary of CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping during a seminar with 200-odd county Party chiefs held in Beijing.

Fang, Party secretary of Shuangqiao district, Chengde, North China's Hebei Province, participated in a two-month training class for county Party secretaries in the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Central Party School), from November 14 last year to January 15.

He was notified someone big would hold a seminar with the county chiefs.

On January 12, Xi Jinping attended the seminar and made a one-hour long keynote speech after taking a group picture with the county Party chiefs. In the picture, Fang stood near to Xi.

Fang was excited. "In the seminar, General Secretary Xi talked a lot about the importance of county Party chiefs, and required us to be self-disciplined and serve the people wholeheartedly," Fang told the Global Times.

"It was a great encouragement."

At the seminar, Xi, who used to be a county chief in Zhengding county, Hebei Province, also stressed the anti-corruption campaign.

The seminar had a warm atmosphere, and Xi prolonged it from two to three hours, Fang recalled.

This was the first time the General Secretary of the Party has hosted a seminar to inspire the county-level officials. Previously, the General Secretary merely addressed at the opening ceremony or the graduation ceremony.

China has more than 2,800 counties or county-level administrative regions. Counties play an important role in connecting ordinary people to the upper reaches of the Party and the government.

The CPC says that counties are fundamental to the stability of the country. County chiefs' capability and loyalty to the CPC matters greatly.

Because of this, the CPC plans to train over 2,800 county chiefs within three years, from 2015 to 2017.

Fang, along with about 200 county chiefs, was among the first-batch of officials to be trained in Beijing.

Observers said Xi's attendance showed the central government attaches increasing importance to the counties, the nations's governing foundation and represents the central government's resolution to consolidate its governing base.

"The CPC has attached increasing importance to the development of the rural areas and the small- and medium-sized cities. Counties have become a major economic growth engine, so the role of the county-level governance is rising," Mao Shoulong, a professor at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

Local upheaval

Previously, the county-level officials seldom had opportunities to contact with the central government officials, but now the CPC requires the county Party chiefs to unify their thinking with the central government through launching a nationwide training.

Before 2008, county-level chiefs were trained in provincial Party schools instead of the Central Party School.

In 2009, the central government issued a regulation requiring the Central Party School to take charge of the training on county Party chiefs, for the first time.

The plan to train over 2,000 county chiefs was devised after the 18th CPC National Congress held in November 2012.

As planned, the first batch of the county chiefs came from 27 provinces and autonomous regions, including Yunnan, Anhui, Jiangsu and other regions.

Fang Zhiyong was notified he would attend the training in early October in 2014. The opening ceremony of the training class kicked off on November 14.

Each training class lasts two months, compared with the previous one-or-two week training in 2008 and 2010, Xinhua reported.

County chiefs take courses on topics, such as theory, the Party's spirit education, innovation and development and leadership.

Innovation and development occupied the biggest portion of the lessons, including 10 courses such as governing the nation according to the "rule of law", and the failure of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, according to Southern Weekly.

How to handle emergency situations was also included in the leadership courses.