Approximately two years after resigning the post as general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee CPC, and a year and a half after finishing his term of office as Chinese president, Jiang Zemin quit his last public post as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the CPC Central Committee at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee.

　　Media at home and abroad agree that Jiang’s decision has won him respect and placed much confidence in China. The smooth shift of leadership from Jiang to Hu Jintao has shown the world that transferring power in China is open and transparent.

　　The move is of great historic significance to the development of China’s politics, as well as institutionalization and standardization of the CPC’s governance of the country. Acceptance of the major political personnel swap by the public reflects that Chinese people’s political lives are becoming more mature.

　　The other focus of the meeting was to put improvement of the Party’s governing capability on top of its agenda, never before done in the CPC’s 55-year ruling history.

　　The CPC has successfully guided the modernization drive in China. However, it is an unavoidable fact that drawbacks still exist in its governance mode, leadership institution and working mechanism. Some leading officials are incompetent.

　　Recently, a survey was conducted among officials at and above the county level by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, which has been the training base for senior CPC officials and the backbone of theoretical studies over the past 70 years. Results showed that more than half of those surveyed had difficulties in making scientific judgments of the international and domestic situations, and more than one third feel at a loss when facing and dealing with complicated situation or emergencies like the SARS outbreak last year.

　　The past two decades have witnessed the demise of many ruling parties worldwide. One major reason is they failed to adapt to the changing situation or improve their governance capability.

　　Historically, the CPC has always been conscious of the difficulties in governing a nation. At the present time, the Party is facing this challenge head on and approaches its mandate with the utmost confidence.

　　By LI JIANGUO