PLA urged to answer Xi's call for 'mass line'

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) and armed police were urged on Wednesday to learn from President Xi Jinping's Tuesday speech, which reaffirmed the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s "mass line" -- an important guideline that defines CPC-people relations.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said Tuesday that the CPC's upcoming year-long campaign will be a "thorough cleanup" of undesirable work styles such as formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance.

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided at a conference in April to launch a campaign to boost ties between CPC members and the public starting from the latter half of this year.

A circular issued by the PLA General Political Department said Xi's speech shows that the CPC is "consciously adaptable to changing times and can maintain its advanced nature and purity."

The education campaign will be significant in "improving the construction of the CPC's work style and boosting its creativity, cohesion and combat capabilities," the circular said.

Xi's speech should be studied and combined with the spirit of the CPC's 18th National Congress held last fall, it said, adding that "the minds and actions of the armed forces" should be unified with decisions made by the central leadership.