President Xi Jinping signaled the unveiling of an overhaul of China’s government agencies when the country’s legislature holds an annual gathering starting next week.
(Bloomberg) — President Xi Jinping signaled the unveiling of an overhaul of China’s government agencies when the country’s legislature holds an annual gathering starting next week.
Broad reforms to agencies in both the government and the ruling Communist Party will focus on key industries and sectors in a “relatively intensified” manner, Xi told officials Tuesday at a conference in Beijing. These changes will affect the interests of many, Xi said, according to a readout from the official Xinhua News Agency.
Xi will embark on a new term as president at the National People’s Congress, after having extended his leadership of the Communist Party last October. His remarks Tuesday signal a potential further strengthening of his grip over the world’s second-biggest economy.
“Although we don’t know the specifics, we are sure that the new restructuring plan will have the party taking over policymaking power from state institutions,” analysts at the research firm Trivium China wrote in a note Monday.
The changes, designed to address some high-stakes difficulties and challenges in the society, are set to bring about significant implications for the country’s economic and social development, Xi said in Tuesday’s remarks.
Financial Panel
The top leadership is mulling reviving the long-disbanded Central Financial Work Commission to bring the decision-making of China’s financial system further under Xi’s control, reports showed last week. He Lifeng — who is expected to replace Liu He as China’s vice premier responsible for economic policy in March — is also being considered for the role of party secretary at the People’s Bank of China, the Wall Street Journal said.
The second plenum of the Communist Party’s Central Committee that took place Feb. 26 to 28 has approved the reform plan for party and government bodies, Xinhua said earlier. It also green-lighted nominees for top leadership positions.
Xi indicated in his remarks that the planned changes would be made to “advance the reforms in the financial system, improve the party Central Committee’s unified leadership of technology business and refine the decision-making and coordinating bodies in the central leadership.”
Li Qiang, who’s poised to become the premier and is already the Communist Party’s No. 2 after Xi, may meet the press after the National People’s Congress. The meeting, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, starts Sunday and is expected to run a week or so.
Formulating a new leadership is one of the major tasks at this year’s legislative meeting, Xi told the gathering of officials from the country’s so-called democratic parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, as well as decision-makers of his own party including Li Qiang and He Lifeng.
(Adds details on the meeting in final paragraph, and additional comment by Xi.)
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