The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council have issued the “Several Provisions on Addressing Formalism to Reduce Burdens on Grassroots Units” (hereinafter referred to as the “Provisions”) and issued a notice requiring all regions and departments to conscientiously comply with and implement them.
The notice points out that formalism and bureaucratism are persistent and deep-rooted issues that must be resolutely corrected with significant effort. Grassroots units are the “last mile” in implementing the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and must not be constrained by formalism and bureaucratism. The formulation of the “Provisions” thoroughly implements the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, improves the long-term mechanism for reducing burdens on grassroots units, and is of great significance for continuously deepening and expanding efforts to address formalism and reduce burdens on grassroots units.
The notice requires all regions and departments to strictly implement the “Provisions,” balance the reduction of burdens on grassroots units with empowerment, effectively free grassroots units from the constraints of formalism and bureaucratism, guide Party members and officials to actively take responsibility, and devote more energy to implementation. The central-level mechanism for addressing formalism to reduce burdens on grassroots units should conduct regular supervision and inspections. Departments of the central and state organs, provincial Party committees, and governments should base their work arrangements on facts and reality. Party committees (leading Party members groups) must fulfill their primary responsibilities, and discipline inspection and supervision agencies at all levels should strengthen oversight and enforcement to ensure the “Provisions” are effectively implemented.
The full text of the “Provisions” is as follows.
Several Provisions on Addressing Formalism to Reduce Burdens on Grassroots Units
To deepen and expand efforts to address formalism and reduce burdens on grassroots units, improve the long-term mechanism for reducing burdens, guide Party members and officials to establish and practice a correct view of political achievement, actively take responsibility, and devote more energy to implementation, the following provisions are formulated.
I. Effectively Streamline Documents
1. Strictly control the number of documents. Localities and departments must implement a plan-based management system, total quantity control, and a document approval process for issuing documents, strictly controlling temporary, supplementary, and task-assignment documents. The actual number of documents issued annually should generally not exceed the previous year’s total; any increase must be explained in writing to the superior Party committee office. Deliberative and coordinating bodies, departments, and units must not issue directive documents to lower-level Party committees and governments or include directive requirements in documents. Strengthen daily dynamic monitoring to prevent circumventing document quantity controls by changing document formats or merging multiple documents.
2. Improve document quality. Adhere to a “concise, practical, and innovative” style. Except for comprehensive work deployments, local and departmental documents should generally not exceed 5,000 characters, and documents deploying specialized work or specific tasks should not exceed 4,000 characters. Documents should get straight to the point, focusing on policy measures for implementation. Background, significance, and principles should generally not be elaborated; if necessary, keep it brief. Content on leadership, responsibility, and organizational support should be concise. Supplementary documents should directly propose specific implementation measures and not simply copy higher-level documents.
3. Strengthen evaluation and review. Localities and departments must conduct assessments to ensure documents align with reducing burdens on grassroots units, strengthen policy and legal compliance reviews, and generally avoid requiring reports on implementation or supplementary documents. Except for specialized documents, documents should not specify requirements for staffing, cadre allocation, wages, awards, vetoes, or responsibility agreements.
II. Strictly Streamline Meetings
4. Strictly control the number of meetings. Meetings must follow a plan-based management system. Statutory and institutional meetings should comply with relevant regulations. Comprehensive work meetings within a system or field should not exceed one per year. Business meetings at all levels should be merged or streamlined where possible. Routine meetings should be concise and controlled in frequency; overlapping agenda items should be combined. Immediate meetings to convey higher-level directives should not be overemphasized. Without approval from the Party committee’s principal leader, meetings (including teleconferences and video conferences) should not be extended to grassroots units. If already held at the grassroots level, no additional meetings should be held. Reduce the frequency of on-site observation and promotion meetings. Work already covered in documents should not require additional meetings. City and county Party committees and governments should coordinate annual comprehensive meetings to prevent clustering at year-end or year-start and significantly reduce meetings for township (street) Party and government leaders and village (community) Party secretaries and directors.
5. Control scale and level. Strictly limit attendees
