First Published: In Beijing Red Flag
(Hongqi, 红旗), in
Chinese, No. 12, 16 June 1983, page 8.
Source of the translation: Joint Publications Research
Service (Arlington , Virginia, USA), China Report: Red Flag No. 12, 16 June 1983.
(JPRS 84141), 17 August 1983, pages 1-2.
Transcription/HTML/Markup for marxists.org: January
2024.
The RED FLAG magazine was first published on 1 June 1958 at the suggestion of Comrade Mao Zedong. For many years, it has carried out beneficial studies on ways to combine the universal truth of Marxism and Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese socialist construction, and has played an active and important role in propagating Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, and in enhancing the theory and policy levels of the broad cadres.
In his report at the 12th CPC National Congress, Comrade Hu Yaobang put forward the grand program to create an all-round phase in the construction of socialist modernizations. Once the political line has been set, cadres are the determining factor. It is an important strategic task for our party to train, in a planned way, a large batch of cadres, especially key leading cadres of the party and the government at various levels, who are needed in building our country into a socialist modernized country with highly civilized and highly democratic features.
In times of revolutionary wars, our cadres were trained mainly through relentless and dangerous revolutionary warfare, through the practice of various kinds of revolutionary struggles, as well as through various forms of short-term training courses. Today, our cadres still need to develop themselves through practical tempering. However, in order to guide such a great undertaking as the construction of socialist modernizations, regular studies and training have to be enforced, so that the cadres can acquire in a systematic manner the political theory, modern technical know-how, and professional knowledge which are necessary for them to take up certain leading posts. This work has already been placed on the important agenda of the party. Not long ago, the CPC Central Committee made the decision to realize the regularization of education in party schools, demanding that normalization and systematization be practiced with regard to problems such as targets of enrollment, school term systems, syllabuses, teaching materials, tests and examinations, graduation, and qualifications, so that training of key figures of the party and government leaders at various levels, and their reserves can be expedited, and they can meet the needs of the construction of socialist modernizations and have the qualities of being revolutionary, younger, better educated, and equipped with professional knowledge. In accordance with this requirement, party schools at various levels are carrying out reforms so as to attain the change from using short-term rotational training as the major means of training cadres to employing regular training as the major means. Efforts are being made, beginning from the initiation of the Seventh 5-Year Plan, to gradually realize the requirement that all those cadres who take up positions at various levels in party or government bodies should have undergone the corresponding training by relevant party schools. This is a reform of profound significance concerning the whole system of assigning cadres, and is of primary importance in training key leading cadres of the party, and in ensuring the inheritability and continuity of the party’s under-taking.
It is an arduous and glorious task to train and bring up a large batch of leading backbone cadres suited to the needs of the construction of our socialist modernizations. Party schools should, under the leadership of party committees of the same level, do their utmost in fulfilling the task and deem it as their unshirkable duty. However, party schools cannot fulfill this task all by themselves with very satisfactory results, they need the support of various sectors concerned in the society. RED FLAG is the theoretical journal of our party, and the party's and the government's important documents, as well as important articles in terms of theory and policy, are published in this magazine. Therefore, it has its specific important function in training and enhancing the theoretical level and political quality of cadres at various levels. I earnestly hope that it will become a stronghold that holds high the banner of communism, propagates communist theories, and educates the broad cadres with communist ideology; that it will follow the principle of combining theory with practice, propagate and clarify the party's line, general policies and specific policies, and expound the experiences and laws of the Chinese socialist construction, so as to educate and equip the cadres at various levels; and that it will become, in this new historical period, a good teacher that helps party schools at various levels to train key leaders at various levels. This is my wish for the RED FLAG journal on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its first publication.