Group Study Session Held to Learn Xi’s Remarks and May Fourth Spirit

Group Study Session Held to Learn Xi’s Remarks and May Fourth Spirit

On the afternoon of May 17, 2021, the Party Committee of the School of Materials Science and Engineering (SMSE) held a group study session on learning the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s remarks made during his inspection tours in Tsinghua University and in Fujian province as well as the spirit of May Fourth Movement. The group study session was presided over by Zhang Qiuman, Secretary of Party Committee of the school, and members of the school’s leading body, members of the SMSE’s Party committee, and Yang Yang, a teacher from the Publicity Department of the USTB’s Party Committee, also attended the study session.

First, Zhang conveyed the guidelines of the notice released by the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) on earnestly studying the guiding principles of Xi Jinping’s remarks made during his inspection tour in Tsinghua University. Zhang urged more efforts in promoting the development and reform of higher education and focusing on enhancing the competence of the youth, teacher’s ethics and Party building, so as to put in place Xi’s new tasks and requirements concerning higher education and constantly deepen the implementation of the school’s work. Zhang also required the members of the group study step up efforts to learn and comprehend Xi’s expositions.

Next, Wang Haibo, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of SMSE, delivered a lecture titled “Passing Down the May Fourth Spirit and Calling on the Youth to Take Up Due Responsibilities”, giving an introduction to the history of the New Culture Movement and the First National Congress of the CPC. Wang’s lecture covered a wide range of areas, including the rise of the New Culture Movement and the impacts of Russia’s October Revolution on China, Marxist ideas spreading across China during the May Fourth era, and the establishment of early CPC organizations and the CPC-led campaigns at the very early stage. In order to make the lecture more vivid and impressive, Wang told such short stories as Chen Duxiu in the South and Li Dazhao in the North arranging for establishing a Communist party in China, and played touching video clips from the TV drama The Awakening Age. Afterwards, Wang shared stories on how some USTB academic masters contributed to the causes of the Party and the country when they were young, and illustrated the historic juncture today’s youth is standing at and the responsibilities that fell on their shoulders.

Then, Zhang led other attendees to learn the guiding principles of Xi’s remarks. She said that education is the foundation of national development in the long run. Xi’s speech delivered at Tsinghua University charted a course for the construction of first-class disciplines and raised ardent expectations for teachers and young students. When studying Xi’s remarks made during his inspection tour in Fujian, she said: “In order to do a good job in administering and building a city, we should give high priority to ‘vegetable basket project’, living environment and urban layouts. If we apply such concepts to school administration, we must focus on the mechanism for talent cultivation, enhance teaching competence, and upgrade the hardware and software conditions of the school.”

After the attendees finished learning Xi’s remarks under the lead of Zhang, Wang Luning, Director of Department of Materials Science and Engineering, as well as Dean and Deputy Party Secretary of SMSE, voiced his opinions on this group study. He urged more efforts in enhancing the education on teachers’ ethnics during this Party history learning campaign. The theoretical studies should be used to guide the school’s key work, and such important work as cultivating talents and scientific research should be well-suited to the development needs of the country. At a new historical starting point marking the CPC’s centenary, higher requirements would be put forward for future work. Afterwards, attendees spoke out their opinions, saying that they gained a lot through this group study session and today’s happy life was hard-won. They considered it a great feat of milestone significance that the CPC could be established under harsh conditions 100 years ago and led Chinese people to come a long way to get where it is today. Confronted with momentous changes not seen in a century, they called for efforts to pass down the spirit of Chinese veteran revolutionaries, firm up the convictions of following the lead of the Party, and further heighten the sense of mission. They pointed out that Xi’s remarks made during his inspection tour in Tsinghua University and Fujian province was of great significance to guide the school’s future work. Deep reflection should be made on how to improve the school’s work and promote the development of the discipline of materials science, on how to meet the development needs of the country, enhance top-level design and implement the 14th Five-Year Plan, and on how to further refine teachers’ and students’ political thinking and cultivate more talents for the Party and the country. They stressed efforts to draw lessons and pool strength from the Party’s 100-year history, bring together a mighty force to make the discipline of material science under SMSE earn elite international ranking, and contribute wisdom to the USTB’s endeavor to gain the “double first-class” honors and its own share to boosting the development of China’s materials science.

Finally, Yang gave comments on this group study session.

(Editor-in-charge: Yuan Huiting)