To build a clean and advanced Party, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has vowed unremitting efforts to push forward its goal of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party.

The CPC is consistently on a path toward comprehensively and strictly governing itself, said Xi Jinping, Chinese president and general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, during a key meeting of the country's top anti-graft watchdog on January 12th.

The task of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party has been incorporated into the "Four Comprehensives" - the strategic objectives outlined in the blueprint for China's future, introduced after the country's new leadership took office in late 2012.

At the start of the three-day sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), Xi further expounded on "comprehensively and strictly governing the Party."

"To accomplish the task, comprehensive governing lays the foundation and strict governing is the key, with strengthening the Party's leadership at the core," said Xi.

"Comprehensively governing the Party" requires better management of the 87 million CPC members as well as the 4.3 million Party organizations, which cover all sectors involved in Party building. Special attention must be paid to the "critical minority," meaning the leading Party cadres.

In October 2015, the CPC set higher standards of morals for its members in a new set of clean governance rules mainly stipulating moral ethics, which, for the first time, expands its coverage from leading officials to all CPC members.

Meanwhile, the principle of strict governing has been upheld in a concrete manner. A new disciplinary regulation that took effect this year was also unveiled last October.

The rules on disciplinary penalties uphold the principle that Party discipline is harsher than the law and discipline should be put before the law among Party organizations and members, setting the "disciplinary bottom line" for the behavior of CPC members.

The task of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party also calls on CPC committees at all levels to take a lead in the responsibility of Party management, while disciplinary departments are urged to exert full effort to supervise officials and pursue violators.

CCDI statistics show that in 2015 more than 40 officials in the central administration were expelled from the CPC for violating the Party's code of conduct. Over 90,000 officials nationwide have been punished for corruption or violations of the Party's frugality rules.

In a communique released after the conclusion of the CCDI key meeting, the CCDI said it will continue its inspection work this year, aiming to cover all central Party and government organs. Currently 47 inspection teams dispatched by the CCDI cover major central CPC and government agencies.

Although the CPC's ongoing drive to comprehensively and strictly govern the Party has gained public support and achieved some progress, some Party members still failed to bear party discipline ethics in mind with awe and fear.

Therefore, efforts should never cease. The CPC has continued stressing Party management according to both ethics and discipline, as well as urging all its members and leading cadres to firmly obey discipline and set a moral bar for themselves to guard against corruption. Embarking on the journey of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party that leads to a clean and advanced Party, the CPC does not plan to give up halfway.

This is a commentary of the Xinhua News Agency. The article first appeared on Xinhua. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn