Here I would like to go into the question of separating Party from government functions as it is the key to China's political structural reform.

Among the documents to be examined during this plenary session, the Report to the 13th National Party Congress and the Overall Plan for the Political Structural Reform concern themselves with this issue. Political restructuring involves primarily the reform of the leadership system. Without resolving the confusion between Party and government functions and the usurpation of government role by the Party, it is impossible to unfold the reform of the political structure as a whole.

General Trend

At present, many socialist countries are talking about political structural reform. Without exception, the socialist countries which have instituted such a reform have set themselves the task of overcoming the problem of the confusion of the responsibility between the Party and the government, and giving full play to the role of organs of state power. This has become a general trend and is bound to take place in China sooner or later. It must also be pointed out that China is among those countries where the confusion of the responsibility between the Party and government has been rather serious. Other socialist countries have, for many years, practised a system under which administrators assume full responsibility at least in the grass-roots units and in all the enterprises and government institutions; here we leave aside things at the central and various local levels. Party committees in the enterprises and institutions of these countries have more or less the same role as the ones in our government organizations which only exercise their supervisory and guaranteeing functions.

In our country, however, the director responsibility system was only practised for a very short time, and primarily in northeast China in the early post-liberation days. Since the late 1950s, the centralized leadership of the Party committees in enterprises and institutions has been emphasized; indeed recognition of it was a hallmark for distinguishing between supporting and opposing the Party's leadership. Furthermore, this system was strengthened with each political movement, with the result that the Party committees took on more and more of the administration. Unwieldy working bodies developed, composed of a large number of cadres not engaged in production.

The switch from centralized leadership to the separation of Party from government will be a major change for our comrades. We must adequately estimate, and be mentally prepared for, this change.

Top to Bottom Reform

Separating Party from government is a major reform in the system of our Party's leadership. It covers all levels-the central departments, the localities and the grass-roots units.

1) The Party Central Committee should exercise political leadership in all fields, which means that it formulates political principles, points political orientation, makes major policy decisions concerning internal affairs, foreign affairs, economy and defence, and recommends people for leading posts in state organizations.

2) Local Party committees at the provincial, municipal and county levels should exercise political leadership by carrying out the line formulated by the Party Central Committee and enforcing the decrees of the central government. They will have five responsibilities: to carry out directives from higher Party organizations and the Party Central Committee; to ensure the implementation in their local areas of directives from governments of higher levels and the State Council; to propose policy decisions on important local issues; to recommend cadres for key posts in local state organs; to co-ordinate the activities of the various local organizations.

3) The separation of Party from government functions at the township level will be postponed purposefully until it has been done at county level.

4) Party committees in enterprises must all play a supervisory and guaranteeing role. Those in government institutions must gradually change their functions and begin to do the same through the implementation of the administrative leadership responsibility system.

It seems that the centre has had little difficulty implementing the reform. The Central Committee now has no departments of industry, finance and trade, culture or education which overlap with similar government ministries. Next the Central Committee will gradually abolish the Party's leading groups in all government ministries. The motions submitted by the State Council to the Political Bureau or its Standing Committee for decision will not go through the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee first for deliberation. Meanwhile attention will also be paid to improving leadership and work methods.

In the past, Party committees in the localities set up departments which corresponded with government departments, and appointed corresponding industrial and agricultural secretaries, and standing committee members of finance and trade, culture and education. These local Party committees took on much more government work than the Party Central Committee did. As a result their task of separating Party from government is greater than the Central Committee. However, since the centre can do it there is no reason for localities not to do so.

The problem is at the grassroots level. There, there are so much full-time Party cadres doing a great deal of the administrative work. To change the old patterns of Party committees being involved in every field we must maintain our resolve and do meticulous ideological and organizational work. Enterprise Party committees must take the initiative and shift to playing a supervisory and guaranteeing role. This will facilitate the reform of the economic structure and ensure the smooth advance of the director (manager) responsibility system. There must be no hesitation or vacillation. The change of the functions of the Party committees in schools and research institutes should proceed steadily and in a clear direction.

Benefits

A major reason for the concern shown by some people over this separation of Party from government is that they have not had much experience of the benefits of the reform for themselves. The more we talk about these benefits, the more that concern will diminish. I hope all of you say more about the benefits of the reform at the plenary session. Here I'd like to stress at least four of them.

First, instead of enhancing and strengthening the Party's leadership, the lack of distinction between Party and government has lowered and weakened the Party's leadership. With the separation of Party and the government, the Party's leadership can really be strengthened and the Party's political leadership ability increased.

Leaders involved in things which should be done by those under them have only relegated themselves to a subordinate position. The Party committees which have taken on government work have turned themselves into governments, and those involved in enterprise affairs have turned themselves into enterprises. As a political leader the Party should exercise political leadership. To distribute money and goods, decide on construction and research projects, and give approval and instructions to routine work are the government departments' day-to-day business. The Party committee's direct involvement in these affairs has not only hampered the government in carrying out its duties but has also abandoned the Party committee's own leadership. A leader should be cool-headed, farsighted and thoughtful. One who involves oneself all day long in trivial matters cannot truly be a good leader.

Here the question is whether one can feel at ease with the government's ability to perform its duties well. Some people worry that things will not be properly handled once they have handed their work over to the government. This fear does not conform to the reality. Many of our comrades work as secretaries one day and mayors the next. Haven't they done their work well? If the Party secretaries do not involve themselves in concrete matters, and instead stand on a higher plane and see far ahead, they will have a greater ability to handle affairs. Being buried in routine work only limits one's perspective on the major issues.