In order to learn and put into effect the guiding principles of the important remarks delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the meeting to launch the campaign for Party history learning and education, put into effect the arrangements and requirements for the Party history learning campaign put forward by the Leading Party Group of the Ministry of Education (MOE), and put into effect the “first-line rule” .

Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the Open University of China (OUC), gave all the teachers and students of the open university system a political and ideological class with the topic “Enhance Love for the Party by Getting Familiar with its History and Be Loyal and Hardworking OUC People” at Shenzhen Open University via live stream. He called on all the people of the OUC to draw strength from the Party’s century of history and be loyal and hardworking. The political and ideological class was broadcast simultaneously via multiple platforms with a total of 47,000 people tuning in.

Together with the teachers and students, Jing Degang guided everyone in a study of the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important remarks delivered at the meeting to launch the campaign for Party history learning and education and the MOE Leading Party Group’s arrangements for the campaign. He indicated that General Secretary Xi Jinping has made explicit instructions that all Party members should study the Party's history in order to be rational, to enhance their belief, to respect morality, and to take actions. President Xi Jinping called for people to make efforts to study the Party's history, understand its theories, do practical work, and make new advances, and also spoke of the need to embark on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist China and welcome the Party's centenary with outstanding achievements. The MOE Leading Party Group has asked the OUC to earnestly advance learning and education, to do practical work, to solve problems, to plan major events, to make innovations, and to improve skills. Learning results should be turned into work initiative and achievements, contributing to the construction of a high-quality educational system.

Together with the teachers and students, Jing Degang reviewed the hundred years of development history since the Party’s founding and the spiritual pedigree that people can draw inexhaustible strength from. This spirit is a major achievement of revolution, construction, and reform, namely, in the consistent struggles of the people of all of China’s ethnic groups under the leadership of the Party. From the revolutionary Red Boat Spirit and the Spirit of the Long March to the hardworking and enterprising Spirit of Jiao Yulu; from the spirit of reform and opening up to the spirit of special economic zones and the fighting spirit of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team; and from the great spirit of struggle to the spirit of combating the COVID-19 epidemic and the spirit of poverty alleviation, Jing Degang told a series of vivid and lively stories. He demonstrated the spiritual pedigree of the different periods of the development of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to the teachers and students representatives. His class left the teachers and students with a deep impression of the consistent ideological core, strong practical traits, and distinctive characteristics of the Party's spiritual pedigree over the years, refining the prominent characteristics that go together with the Party’s spiritual pedigree: belief, loyalty, and endeavour.

Jing Degang called on all teachers and students to be loyal and hardworking. Loyalty is the top political characteristic and quality. It is imperative for all teachers and students to uphold their faith and ideals and to perform the responsibilities associated with their positions. Endeavour means struggle and progress. Over the past 40 years, the OUC has fully demonstrated its history of forging ahead, and it is imperative that all teachers and students study hard and get the encouragement they need to forge ahead. They should not only complete tasks but also complete them successfully in order to broaden their own vision and patter and demonstrate the distinctive traits and spiritual outlook of the people of the OUC in the new era. The teachers and students of the OUC headquarters, branches, and schools studied the live streamed class “Enhance Love for the Party by Getting Familiar with its History and Be Loyal and Hardworking OUC People”, which will also be included in the contents of Party history learning and education at all schools and the “Situation and Policies” course. After class, teachers and students everywhere exchanged their feelings in a variety of ways. It was generally accepted that the ideological and political class gave everyone a better understanding of the history and spirit of the CPC, a deeper love for the Party, and a firmer sense of conviction. In addition to warmth and emotion, they not only enhanced their own political and ideological awareness but also gained more positive power. The teachers and students all said that they would apply the qualities of “loyalty” and “endeavour” to their future work and life, do practical work in their own positions, use their predecessors and other outstanding OUC people as examples, and contribute to the OUC’s new journey.

Written by Zhou Mingkun and Cheng Qian, photos by Shi Yungong, OUC