(Source: Nanfang.com 2025-8-31)

In order to implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on rectifying formalism and reducing the burden on the grassroots, in August 2024, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Provisions on Combating Formalism and Reducing the Burden on the Grassroots" (hereinafter referred to as "Several Provisions"), this is another important deployment to address the shortcomings of formalism at the grassroots level after the central government issued the "Notice on Solving Outstanding Issues of Formalism to Reduce the Burden on the Grassroots Level" in 2019. It is also the first time that the Party Central Committee has formulated and promulgated institutional norms to reduce the burden on the grassroots level in the form of intra-party regulations. The issuance of this regulation is of extremely important significance for improving grassroots governance capabilities and improving the grassroots governance environment. The Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the issue of formalism at the grassroots level, which shows that the current threat of formalism to the party's long-term governance is still serious. Formalism is a long-standing chronic disease within the party, and the grassroots level is the "last mile" for implementing the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee. If the problem of formalism at the grassroots level cannot be curbed, it will not only cause a large waste of human, material and financial resources for the grassroots party and government agencies, but also seriously threaten the foundation of the party's long-term governance.

It can be seen from the recent notifications on formalism issues in various places that grassroots formalism has evolved into many new manifestations at present. One is "formalism at your fingertips". The development and application of information technology should provide convenience for grassroots work, but some regions and agencies blindly use indicators such as the number of publications, readings, views, and likes as assessment indicators for grassroots work. This has led some leading cadres to forcibly assign matters such as following, reading, liking, forwarding, location check-ins, and uploading logs on party and government platforms to grassroots party members and cadres, which has greatly affected them. The second is that supervision and assessment are divorced from reality, and the supervision and assessment work that is supposed to improve the quality of grassroots work is performed randomly and intensively in the actual implementation process. The third is that with the institutional reform and functional division in recent years, grassroots tasks have been increased layer by layer, and grassroots party members and cadres are overwhelmed by the "small horse and cart" problem and the chaos of "indiscriminate listing" of grassroots party and government agencies. In addition, there are problems that have been repeatedly prohibited for a long time, such as high-profile meetings, cost apportionment, performance projects, image projects, illegal secondments, and "one-size-fits-all" policy formulation. These issues are exactly what are mentioned in the seven parts of the "Several Provisions", which shows that the Party Central Committee has an accurate grasp of grassroots formalism. The basic Marxist viewpoint on contradiction tells us that the key to solving a problem is to grasp the main contradiction of the problem. The main contradiction that causes the emergence and spread of formalism at the grassroots level lies in the ideological problems of some party members and cadres and the absence of the people's position. The specific manifestations are the separation from the masses and the misalignment of the view of political achievements in work.

Grassroots party and government organs and party members and cadres are the executors of party and state policies that directly face the people. Compared with higher-level units, the work faced by grassroots party and government agencies is complex and comprehensive. The development level, residents' quality, and humanities and customs of each township, village, and county are greatly different. Grassroots party members and cadres have great responsibilities and pressures, and they have to deal with various matters of economic and social development. As the saying goes, "Thousands of lines on the top, one needle on the bottom." An important way to understand the actual problems and actual conditions at the grassroots level is to conduct surveys and research. The Party Central Committee clearly stated in the 2023 "Work Plan for the Investigation and Research of Daxing in the Whole Party": "We must adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts, adhere to the principle of party spirit, proceed from reality in everything, integrate theory with practice, listen to the truth, observe the actual situation, adhere to the truth, correct mistakes, one is one, two is two, report both good and bad news, not only books, not only the top, but only reality." To get rid of grassroots formalism, we must strengthen the ideological construction of party organizations at all levels. Ideological construction is the basic construction of the party. Since its establishment, the Communist Party of China has regarded serving the people wholeheartedly as its fundamental purpose. To rectify formalism at the grassroots level and reduce the burden on the grassroots is to better serve the people. Therefore, the elimination of formalism must be guided by ideological construction. Party members and cadres at all levels must always keep in mind the working method of "from the masses, to the masses."

Curbing grassroots formalism is the key to strengthening the modernization of grassroots governance systems and governance capabilities, and it is by no means a one-day achievement. The unhealthy trend of formalism has long existed in all areas of the party's work. The Communist Party of China has been fighting formalism since its founding. Judging from the history of the Communist Party of China's struggle against formalism, one of the main reasons for the growth of formalism is the ideological problems of party members and cadres. Successive party and state leaders have made important expositions on the ideological problems of party members and cadres behind the formalism problem. As the fight against formalism at the grassroots level has been established in the form of intra-party regulations, the whole party should seize this opportunity, start with ideological construction, actively explore effective ways to strengthen ideological construction, guide party organizations at all levels and all party members and cadres to strengthen ties with the people, establish a correct view of political achievements, strengthen the people's position, fundamentally eliminate the ideological soil that breeds formalism, and provide practical guarantees for the party's long-term governance and socialist construction.

(The author Gao Lei is the director of the Department of Ideological and Political Education at the w88 casino of Marxism at the w88 casino; Zhang Qidi is a master's student at the w88 casino of Marxism at the w88 casino)

Attached original text link:https://theory.southcn.com/node_50f7e543c0/1c95b11865.shtml?r=0.39064236997345025