China's communist party Sunday published a lengthy policy paper on how to preserve power over the world's most populous nation amid the threat from "hostile forces", state media reported.
The 36-page Central Committee decision warned that the party's ruling status is "by no means a natural result of the Party's founding, and will not remain forever if the Party does nothing to safeguard it", Xinhua news agency said.
"We must develop a stronger sense of crisis, draw experience and lessons from the success and failure of other ruling parties in the world, and enhance our governance capability in a more earnest and conscientious manner," it said.
Although the document was passed at a full Central Committee meeting earlier this month which also saw the completion of a transfer of power to a new generation of leaders, it was not made available to the public until Sunday.
The policy paper said the party should continue to push forward "socialist democracy", enabling people to participate in political affairs in "an orderly way".
This almost certainly does not mean democracy in the western sense, since party leader Hu Jintao said earlier this month that China would end up in a "blind alley" if it followed western political systems.
Rather, the document urged strengthened restraints and supervision over the exercise of power by leading officials.
"Party organisations and cadres at all levels should consciously put themselves under the supervision of Party members and the people," says the document.
The document said economic development would remain the top priority for the party, in line with its current strategy of containing social tension by raising the standard of living.
"We must persist in making development the top priority in governing the country and rejuvenating the nation and constantly improve the Party's capability in running the socialist market economy," it said.