Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian Publishes an Article Entitled “What Is the Secret of the Communist Party of China’s Long-Term Governance?”

On July 6, 2026, Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian published an article entitled “What Is the Secret of the Communist Party of China’s Long-Term Governance?” in The Workers’ Weekly Guardian, introducing the Communist Party of China’s glorious journey, major achievements, and invaluable experience over the past 105 years to all sectors of Australian society, focusing on the "two answers" to escaping the historical cycle of rise and fall, precisely decoding the successful magic secret for a large party to solve its unique challenges and continuously create miracles. The full text is as follows:

This year marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Over the past century, the CPC has grown from a small party of over 50 members into the world's largest governing party with significant global influence, with more than 101 million members, over 5.4 million primary-level organisations, and a mandate to govern a country of more than 1.4 billion people.

Over the past 105 years, the CPC has led China to rejuvenation from the brink of subjugation. Since the introduction of the reform and opening up policy, China, under the leadership of the CPC, has accomplished in just over 40 years what took developed countries centuries to achieve, creating the two miracles of rapid economic growth and long-term social stability.

Some people have long maintained a critical stance toward the CPC, as Western democratic theories lack a paradigm for the long-term governance of a single party. Failing to understand the CPC and unwilling to observe China up close, they often vacillate between the so-called 'China collapse' and 'China threat' narratives.

In fact, the CPC has foreseen the challenges facing a large party in long-term governance long ago. In 1945, in a cave dwelling in Yan’an, the prominent democrat Huang Yanpei asked Mao Zedong how the Party could escape the historical cycle of rise and fall. Mao replied: through democracy, by letting the people supervise the government. Over 80 years afterwards, the CPC has developed a sound system of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics, comprising democratic centralism and whole-process people’s democracy.

Democratic centralism is a combination of centralism on the basis of democracy and democracy under centralised guidance. It covers democracy on elections, decision-making, administration, and oversight. Delegates to Party congresses at all levels conduct competitive elections. Major decisions are made through voting and require a majority vote to pass. Beforehand, the opinions of Party organisations and members at all levels must be fully solicited. Party affairs are to be made public, so that members understand the decision-making process and are able to oversee leading Party cadres.

The whole-process people’s democracy means that all people participate throughout the whole process of democracy, and democracy is institutionalised in law and embedded in every stage of election, consultation, decision-making, administration, and oversight. Under the institutional arrangement, the Constitution and laws guarantee citizens the right to vote and stand for election, as well as the right to criticise and make suggestions to any government office or public official. Deputies to people’s congresses at the county level and below are directly elected; those at the prefecture level and above are indirectly elected. Before making major decisions, government should fully consult with different political parties, other government offices, social organisations and etc., ensuring that the people take part in the whole process of state governance.

A vivid example is the CPC Central Committee’s drafting of recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan in 2024, which took over eight months. During that period, state leaders and the drafting team carried out extensive field research. They listened views from experts in economics, science, and technology, think tanks, and representatives of grassroots workers such as ride-hailing drivers and food-delivery riders, and received more than 3,113,000 online submissions. These were distilled into over 1,500 constructive, representative suggestions across 27 categories. Once the draft was produced, opinions were widely solicited from government departments and figures both within and outside the Party; the text was revised repeatedly to fully reflect the interests of all sectors of society.

Entering the new era, in response to the risks of ideological slackness, lack of competence, alienation from the people, and passivity and corruption that may arise under the conditions of long-term governance, General Secretary Xi Jinping has provided the second answer to overcome the historical cycle of rise and fall—which is 'self-reform'.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party has exercised full and rigorous self-governance, strictly implemented the central Party leadership’s eight-point decision on improving work conduct, upheld a zero-tolerance stance against corruption, resolutely corrected any misconduct that harms the people’s interests, and strengthened disciplinary inspection and oversight. 

Adhering to the principle that Party discipline is stricter than state law, the Party has repeatedly affirmed that “those who wish to hold office must not seek personal wealth; those who seek personal wealth must not hold office”. A complete set of institutional norms for the Party to continue working to purify, improve, renew, and excel itself has been forged through intra-Party regulations, ensuring that the Party remains progressive, clean, and capable of governance. 

In 1945, the CPC established wholeheartedly serving the people as its fundamental purpose. This requires the Party to have no special interests of its own and to represent consistently the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. This has enabled the CPC to rapidly self-examine whenever it stumbled during its growth, ensuring that the Party is always on the path of self-revolution.

In 2020, a longitudinal survey for more than 10 successive years by the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, found that 93.1% of the Chinese public expressed satisfaction with the central government and the CPC, and the figure had risen continuously over the years. History and the people have cast their vote, underwriting the CPC’s long-term governance.