China adopts plan to ‘reform’ Party-State machinery

The draft plan, adopted at a plenum of the Central Committee will be presented next week to the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, which convenes in Beijing for one week

China’s ruling Communist Party on Tuesday concluded a key annual meeting and adopted a plan “for the reform of party and state institutions” that is set to further tighten the party’s — and leader Xi Jinping’s — direct oversight of government bodies.

A communique released in Beijing after the three-day, behind-closed-doors meeting, or plenum, of 373 members of the Central Committee, said the reforms would cement “the overall leadership of the party”.

The draft plan — yet to be made public — will first be presented next week to the annual meeting of Parliament, or National People’s Congress (NPC), which convenes in Beijing for one week, starting March 5. The plenum “adopted a plan for the reform of party and state institutions”, the communique said, and “agreed to put part of the reform plan to the…NPC for deliberation”.

Since taking over in 2012, Mr. Xi, who began a third term as CPC General Secretary in October 2022 and will begin his third term as President after the NPC concludes, has already overhauled the party-state machinery, bringing tighter control and oversight over the functioning of bureaucrat-led government departments. 

Decision-making has been moved out of government ministries to newly set up party-led commissions, such as the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, which replaced earlier smaller “party leading groups”. The commissions have brought greater centralisation, 

“Efforts are needed to deepen institutional reform in key areas and ensure the party’s leadership over socialist modernisation becomes more refined in an institutional setup, more optimised in the division of functions, more improved in institutions and mechanisms, and more efficient in operation and management,” the communique said, adding that the reform would “follow the principles of adhering to the overall leadership of the party.”

The plenum also adopted a list of candidates, set to be rubber-stamped by the largely ceremonial NPC next week, to head government ministries for the next five years.