(REOPENS FGN 10)

"The Soviet Communist Party collapsed in 1991 after 74 years in power. It is a wake-up call for the CPC and a very good lesson to be learnt," Zhou Jintang, Vice President of the China Executive Leadership Academy at Jiangxi province told visiting Foreign Journalists few months ago. The Academy, one of six established by the CPC, trains around 5,000 middle rung party leaders and officials from the military, government business every year in various aspects of ideological education. Ever since he took over as Party leader, Xi, currently the Vice President, has been warning the party about rot setting in its ranks reminding them about "cyclical fall of rulers" throughout Chinese history. In one of his meetings with the non-Communist parties, Xi also narrated an ancient Chinese saying which stated "things must have gone rotten before insects can grow" while asking his party-men to stay clean and self-disciplined. Vowing to carry forward reforms, he has also been cautioning about any ideological confusion in the CPC in the backdrop of disgraced Party leader, Bo Xilai, who, before his fall last year, tried to resurrect old Maoist hardline ideology playing up on the growing rich-poor divide. Since his election, Xi has also been insisting that the country's 2.3-million-strong PLA, the world's largest army, should remain under the leadership of the party and cannot have an independent command structure. After taking over as party chief, Xi also took over as the Chairman of the Military Commission, which controlled the armed forces. He is due to take over as President after the retirement of Hu Jintao, making him the most powerful leader of the party in recent years. Hu had to wait for two years to become head of the Military Commission after his election as party chief ten years ago. In one of his addresses to the military last month, Xi called for absolute loyalty to the CPC.