A close look at their activities not only provides an opportunity to see how they actually operate, but also sheds more light on the Chinese government's policy priorities and the challenges it faces. It is also useful for
In addition, as the Chinese government seeks to strengthen its control over cities, the head of the Hong Kong and Macau Policy Bureau is appointed to the Party Central Committee rather than the State Council, which is the country's cabinet, in order to strengthen coordination with other government departments. will be reported directly to.
According to Alfred Wu, the review aims to “guide national resource-to-technological independence while strengthening the party's control over financial and social risks” in the face of increasingly hostile Western powers. “This is an important part of the ruling Communist Party's efforts,” said Lee Kuan Yew, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
“As China's party- and state-led governance model seeks to shift the primary economic growth engine from real estate to technology, it typically relies on party committees to influence the allocation of resources to priorities,” he said. The best way is to establish a government bureau.”
“It is a painful and long process. China wants to use the Party-led fiscal model to pump more money into research and development while keeping an eye on social stability due to rising unemployment.”
05:50
Why do so many people join the Chinese Communist Party?
Why do so many people join the Chinese Communist Party?
Efforts to ensure stability have spread to the grassroots, with a social services department that must handle petitions and complaints from the public being established at the district level, the only new organization to operate at such a low level. be.
According to Xie Mosong, a senior researcher at Tsinghua University's Institute for National Strategy, departments that oversee economic affairs only make sense on a large scale, but the opposite is true when it comes to social stability.
“We need to reach the grassroots level to know what the problems are on the ground and take immediate action,” Xie said.
At the central level, Beijing appointed veteran party administrator Wu Hansheng as director of social work in July 2023.
At a February meeting, Wu and his aides set out key tasks for the year, tasking the state's social management team with finding ways to better handle petitions and listen to grassroots grievances and suggestions. He instructed them to promptly formulate a plan. They were also asked to deploy more staff to identify and mitigate potential social risks.
The central department is also tasked with asserting the party's leadership over various sectors of society, including industry federations and party branches in private enterprises. It also aims to extend the party's reach to the gig economy and the growing number of self-employed workers.
Most of the state officials who attended the event were secretaries of local New Economy and New Social Organization Working Committees. These committees were established in 2016 to expand the party's reach into the private sector and the new internet industry, where it had previously been limited. arrival.
A Zhejiang provincial official said the construction of a nationwide social organization network is still underway.
“We are still in the process of clarifying new reporting areas and finding and streamlining overlapping functionality. But the directive from the top is very clear: Get it done by the end of the year, and they won't accept excuses. ” he said.
The first new institution to be established is the National Financial Supervisory Authority, which was established in May last year, demonstrating the leadership's belief that stronger supervision of the financial sector is urgently needed.
In March last year, the Chinese government also announced that it would replace local financial regulators with local branch agencies, the State Financial Supervisory Administration, which has given local governments more freedom in tackling issues, especially since This is a clear sign of the Chinese government's distrust of local governments. Regulation is seen as a major cause of corruption.
Most regional financial regulator heads are dispatched from the central office in Beijing.
A political scientist from Nanjing University said the leadership has serious concerns about financial risks and corruption, as the damage it could cause to ordinary people's lives is at a “nuclear level.”
“Comparing the damage in different sectors, corruption in the financial sector definitely tops the charts, as it can affect the flow of, or give access to, the entire financial market worth trillions of yuan. will be at the forefront of the
“While other officials are receiving bribes of thousands or even millions of yuan, corruption in the financial sector can easily reach billions of yuan, leaving gaping holes and major headaches in the system. “There is a gender,” he said.
The political scientist said the government reshuffle shows that “Beijing is now very clear about this.” The financial sector shall not have its own agenda. It simply plays a role in moving capital where the party wants it to go. ”
Three local officials involved in the review said the new local financial institutions would only operate in state capitals and a few major cities.
“This means that Guangdong will have a provincial financial regulatory bureau and two city-level bureaus in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, and Shenzhen, a city under separate national plans. That's it.” Guangdong provincial officials said.
04:53
Xi Jinping emphasizes party leadership as parliamentary session approaches
Xi Jinping emphasizes party leadership as parliamentary session approaches
Officials from Guizhou province agreed. “The provincial financial regulatory agency and local financial regulatory agency will only be established in the provincial capital Guiyang. Many executives working in the financial sector, especially those from smaller cities, will be relocated,” he added.
A person involved in the review of the system in Shanghai, China's financial and commercial center, said the review was aimed at removing responsibility for market development from the city's finance bureau and focusing on regulation.
“The work of the Finance Office is to provide services to local governments and financial institutions, coordinating financial resources, assisting in obtaining credit to finance local development projects, and supporting local companies to go public. did.
“It's different now. The central government's priority for us is to identify potential financial risks within our jurisdiction and manage them before they explode,” the Shanghai official said. Stated.
“It’s not just about changing plates outside the office. It requires fundamental changes in how the Bureau operates, how it thinks, and how it regulates its interactions with financial institutions to avoid corruption. Yes, we are just getting started.”
When it comes to data management, implementation at the state level is more spotty.
AI is seen as the next major competitive area for China and the US, and data is an essential resource for technology development and training.
After the launch of the National Data Bureau, 20 of the mainland's 31 provinces, regions and municipalities have so far been in line with Beijing's blueprint to develop China's data infrastructure and integrate and share data resources. It has established its own data management bureau.
Under the plan, national hub nodes will be established in some of the country's major economic hubs, such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and around Beijing, as well as in less-populated areas such as Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. .
With the exception of Ningxia, all other provinces and regions mentioned in the plan have already announced new data agencies led by directors with professional backgrounds in computers and big data.
Some provinces, such as Shaanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, and Guangdong, also include “government services” in the names of their data institutions, indicating their role in providing one-stop access to government services for residents. This suggests clear expansion.
05:27
Explaining “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”
Explaining “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”
The most mysterious of the new party organs is the one established to coordinate the development of science, and little information about its activities throughout the country is made public.
Unlike other newly established party organs, even the leadership of this organ is unknown, but analysts say it is a sign of China's concerns about surveillance from the West and that it shows ties to the military. He states that there is even a possibility that
“China needs to avoid attention from the West so that it can pursue its science and technology development plans with relatively few obstacles and interventions,” Tsinghua's Xie said.
He said China's ambitious technology development and talent attraction plans, such as the Made in China 2025 Blueprint and the Thousand Talents Plan, could be used by Western countries to track China's bets on new industries and international talent recruitment. He pointed out that -key is the natural response. ”
02:36
Chinese President Xi Jinping announces new structure for the country's highest decision-making body
Chinese President Xi Jinping announces new structure for the country's highest decision-making body
Information on state-level scientific organizations is also very limited. As of the end of April, only Henan province and Inner Mongolia had announced the creation of their own scientific committees, chaired by senior officials.
Prof Wu, from the National University of Singapore, said it was unclear whether this overhaul would be effective, as such drastic organizational changes would take time to resolve the confusion and internal conflicts they could cause. He said it was still too early to tell.
“Many companies take years to complete the merger and acquisition process, and the political and state institutions of giant China, which has faced three major reshuffles since Mr. Xi took power, Needless to say.”
Mr. Xi's three rounds of institutional reforms announced in 2013, 2018, and last year all concentrated power in the hands of party organizations and streamlined an ever-expanding bureaucracy to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The purpose is to
“Determining the organizational structure and staffing is probably the easiest part of this personnel change. It can be done in two years. Going forward, the bigger challenge will be for the new agency to prove itself,” Wu said. he said.
