Coronavirus serves a litmus test to judge caliber of China’s CPC frontline officials

By Hu Yuwei Source:Global Times Published: 2020/2/22 19:04:50

Photo:Cui Meng/GT


The outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia serves as a litmus test to filter out qualified officials and Communist Party of China members, as 20 frontline officials have been awarded promotions, and 34 Party members have been newly recruited across Wuhan as of Friday.

The central government also ousted Party officials for breaching rules and disciplinary guidelines, evident in 385 problems, involving 620 officials - six bureau-level - penalized for misconducts, according to the discipline inspection and supervision organ of the government.

Suggesting clear rewards and punishments as an effective tool to strengthen the governance and maximize the role of Party members at this difficult time in the wake of the nationwide fight against the virus, Chinese experts, however, cautioned against misusing such evaluation criteria as a tool for bureaucracy and political retaliation.

Chen Yixin, the deputy head of the central guiding group on Hubei, inspected the control and prevention of the epidemic, and the performance of grassroots officials in communities across Wuhan through repeated secret visits.

Examining officials against the backdrop of a national health crisis has been one of his strongly preferred criteria in overseeing the efforts at containing the coronavirus spread in Wuhan.

Chen stressed frontline officials, especially those on sensitive posts, preforming outstandingly, can be granted an out of turn promotion, whereas serious punishment is necessary for those embroiled in concealment and sloth administration.

After Global Times' report of some Wuhan officials, slacking off in their duties while transferring a batch of coronavirus patients to a designated hospital surfaced, Chinese central government officials, summoned the responsible local officials. 

Temporary Party branches were set up at several temporary Fangcang makeshift hospitals to recruit outstanding applicants currently serving in the frontline.

The 34 frontline workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan were recently incorporated into the CPC after a careful review of their performance. A video posted online showed them swearing by the Party flag Friday, pledging they are "ready to sacrifice for people" in the fight against the coronavirus. 

"However, it is worth taking care to avoid formalism and bureaucracy in the process of promotion or punishment," Song Guiwu, a professor at Gansu's Provincial Party School, told the Global Times on Saturday. "We have to be careful against the punishment mechanism becoming a tool for some officials to pass the buck or retaliate against dissidents."

"I suggest that the punished be given a chance for appeal and a system of post-disciplinary reassessment to be established," Song added.

"In addition to evaluating the performance of officials, I hope that after the outbreak we can have a further reflection on our disease control and prevention system, the public opinion report scheme, as well as the supervision system for those in higher positions," Yin Hongbiao, an international relations professor at Peking University, told the Global Times on Saturday.



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