China: Oficials Asked To Improve Speeches

17 May 2010

Party officials must rid their speeches and documents of "empty words", Vice-President Xi Jinping said in a speech published on Sunday.

At the opening of the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's spring semester held on Wednesday in Beijing, Xi told more than 900 officials and new cadre students that they must improve their speeches and writing by promoting independent-thinking and ridding their speeches and documents of "empty words" and political jargon.

To achieve this the Party should create a tolerant environment that encouraged speeches containing new ideas, he said.

A transcript of Xi's speech was published in the latest issue of Qiushi Magazine, "Seeking Truth", the official magazine of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi, who is also the president of the Party School, which trains senior Party officials from across the country, said his speech was meant to highlight the revised styles advocated at the Party plenary conference in September 2009.

Xi said that speeches should be short and concise, truth seeking and contain new ideas.

He warned that if current rhetorical styles proliferated the Party's authority would be undermined, and that officials and the public would be increasingly isolated from each other.

He said officials should study the Party's basic theories, new knowledge and ancient literature, and further their understanding of Party principles.

Xi also urged officials to learn "colloquial wisdom" from the public to make their speeches and articles more easily understood by everyone.

"Writing styles have become a big problem," Li Baoshan, president of Qiushi Magazine, said in a discussion on Xi's speech on Thursday.

However, he said that China has developed its own particular styles of speeches and writing and that the new proposals did not mean that its distinctive characteristics would be replaced or abandoned.

Li Jingtian, vice-president of the central Party school, proposed that a system be introduced to help officials address the issues.

Fewer meetings, unscripted speeches, limits on speech time and a tolerant environment could be included in the system, and the Party could introduce reviews of officials' writing and speech styles as part of the annual evaluations of their work, he proposed.

Source: CHINA DAILY