Recently, Qingxu County in Shanxi Province was reported as a typical problem of reducing the burden on grassroots level due to the illegal use of funds to repair the roof of government office buildings and construct landscape ornaments in squares. According to the announcement, Qingxu County invested 590 million yuan to build the county's water system ecological governance and urban parking lot benefit project. During the implementation of the project, Qingxu County illegally packaged the antique roof and exterior painting of the county government's comprehensive office building, as well as the lighting project of the government's comprehensive office building, into the county's water system ecological governance and urban parking lot benefit project, resulting in an actual expenditure of 11.93 million yuan. It is particularly noteworthy that the main body responsible for reporting typical issues is the Office of the Special Work Mechanism for Rectifying Formalism at the Central Level and Reducing Grassroots Burden (hereinafter referred to as the Special Work Mechanism) in conjunction with the Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The reporter found that since the beginning of this year, the Office of the Special Work Mechanism has, in conjunction with the Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, reported multiple typical problems of reducing the burden on grassroots by rectifying formalism. The interviewed experts believe that since the launch of the special mechanism for reducing grassroots burdens through the rectification of formalism at the central level, especially since the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Provisions on Rectifying Formalism to Reduce Grassroots Burden" (hereinafter referred to as the "Several Provisions"), typical problems reported have shown a normalized trend, and the rectification of formalism to reduce grassroots burdens has gradually moved towards institutionalization and standardization. The firm determination to reduce the burden on the grassroots in Qingxu County is one of the three typical problems reported by the Office of the Special Work Mechanism and the Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in this special work. The other two occurred in Sichuan Province and Guizhou Province respectively. The Jinniu District Foreign Exchange Center in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province has over decoration problems, and Xingyi City in Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province has formalism problems in the rectification of encroaching on farmland, digging lakes and creating landscapes. The report stated that the above issues reflect the weak awareness of discipline and rules in some places. Despite the repeated orders from the Party Central Committee to get used to living a tight life and practicing frugality to oppose waste, they still do not strictly control the construction and decoration projects that are not necessary or urgent, and even take the initiative to do so; Some systems and regulations are not sound, supervision and management are not in place, and the trend of excessive construction and decoration has not been detected and stopped in a timely manner at the grassroots level; Some have not deeply learned from the typical problems reported, taken lessons from them, failed to implement education guidance and rectification responsibilities, and failed to timely supervise daily operations. Similar problems have been repeatedly reported and rectified. Since the beginning of this year, the Office of the Special Work Mechanism has, in conjunction with the Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, reported multiple typical issues. In April of this year, three typical problems of reducing the burden on grassroots level were reported in the rectification of formalism, and Shanxi, Liaoning, and Heilongjiang were specifically named and reported. In August of this year, the Office of the Special Work Mechanism, together with the Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, reported three typical issues, with Jilin, Jiangsu, and the National Pipeline Network Group being named. According to the notification, the Office of the National Pipeline Network Group lacks coordination in convening meetings among various departments and units, resulting in more accompanying meetings and strong feedback from cadres and employees. Song Wei, Director of the Anti Corruption Research Center at Beijing University of Science and Technology, believes that since the launch of the special work mechanism, especially since the beginning of this year, the reporting of typical problems has shown a normalized trend, fully reflecting the Party Central Committee's firm determination to comprehensively and strictly rectify formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots, sending a signal to the society to be strict to the end, and clearly establishing the work orientation of using reform and innovation methods to empower and motivate cadres to take responsibility at the grassroots level. In the view of Zhuang Deshui, Deputy Director of the Public Policy Research Center at Peking University, publicly reporting typical problems is to show the whole society that the Party Central Committee is taking real action in rectifying formalism and reducing the burden on the grassroots, continuously releasing the strong deterrent effect of focusing on correcting formalism, and freeing grassroots leaders from the shackles of formalism. Meanwhile, from the reported cases, it can be seen that incorporating behaviors such as extravagance, waste, and excessive decoration into the category of formalism is beneficial for more accurately reducing the burden on grassroots. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has attached great importance to rectifying formalism and reducing the burden on the grassroots, making it an important part of the Party's work style construction and an important measure to care for the grassroots. In December 2012, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved the "Eight point Regulation on Improving Work Style and Closely Connecting with the Masses", which clearly stated that formalism should be avoided. Subsequently, the "Regulations on Implementing Frugality and Opposing Waste in Party and Government Organs" were issued and implemented. At the beginning of 2019, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee issued a notice on reducing the burden on grassroots by addressing prominent issues of formalism. Based on this, under the centralized and unified leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a special mechanism will be established at the central level to rectify formalism and reduce the burden at the grassroots level. The mechanism will be led by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, with the participation of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, and will be responsible for coordinating and promoting the implementation of the work. On April 1, 2019, the first meeting of the special work mechanism was held in Beijing, and the special work mechanism was launched and an office was established. In July of this year, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held, which deployed the continuous deepening, expansion, and rectification of formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots, and clearly proposed to improve the long-term mechanism for reducing the burden on the grassroots. Subsequently, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Provisions" proposing to effectively streamline documents, mainly stipulating strict control of document quantity, improvement of document quality, and strengthening evaluation and review; Strictly streamline meetings, mainly by strictly controlling the number of meetings, controlling the scale and specifications, and improving quality and efficiency. Song Wei believes that the significance of formulating and issuing the "Several Provisions" lies in the fact that the Party Central Committee has integrated the institutional regulations for rectifying formalism in recent years, and for the first time formulated and issued institutional norms in the form of party regulations to reduce the burden on the grassroots, providing important institutional guidance for grassroots burden reduction work. It is an important measure to improve the comprehensive strict governance of the Party system. This fully reflects the unwavering determination of the Party Central Committee to comprehensively and strictly rectify formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots, and clearly establishes the work orientation of using reform and innovation methods to empower and motivate cadres to take on responsibilities. It also means that the rectification of formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots is gradually moving towards institutionalization and standardization Song Wei said. The normalization of formalism in full chain governance and the institutionalization of reducing the burden on grassroots work are not the end points. The interviewed experts suggest that full chain governance should be formalistic. Song Wei believes that we should follow the deployment of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, implement the "Several Provisions", further improve the long-term mechanism for reducing the burden on the grassroots, improve the institutional norms for governing formalism in various aspects such as policy formulation, supervision and implementation, and assessment and inspection, standardize power allocation and supervision, and ensure that formalism has no room for survival. We must continue to carry out education on the ideals and beliefs of Party members and leading cadres, and eliminate erroneous concepts from the ideological roots Song Wei said that at the same time, efforts should be made to increase the crackdown on formalism. For some persistent problems and innovative new manifestations, such as the "political achievement project" and "new image project", problems in the refinement of documents and inspections, and "formalism at the fingertips", we must adhere to the principle of closely monitoring and cracking down on them, so as to have an effective deterrent effect. Song Wei called for strengthening the system of reporting typical problems, conducting regular verification and reporting of typical problems, promoting reform through cases, and encouraging various regions and departments to conduct self-examination, self correction, and rectification of the prominent problems of formalism, bureaucracy, and increasing the burden on grassroots in their respective fields. Zhuang Deshui believes that the formalism that increases the burden on grassroots reflects the misalignment of power operation in some places. Therefore, in the long run, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the government management system and government institutions, standardize government administrative management behavior, improve the cadre assessment mechanism, construct a fault tolerance mechanism and a reward and incentive mechanism, in order to reform and eliminate formalism. In addition, it is necessary to tighten the ideological "switch" of leading cadres and educate them to establish a correct view of power, interests, and achievements. (New Society)