CPC concludes key meeting
‘Strengthening Party’s all-round leadership is priority’
The Communist Party of China (CPC) is determined to deepen reform of Party and State institutions, and create conditions for the market to play the decisive role in resource allocation, while prioritizing the mission of strengthening the Party’s allround leadership.
The 19th CPC Central Committee issued a communiqué at the end of its three-day third plenary session on Wednesday. President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made a keynote speech at the session, which was presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
According to the communiqué, the plenary session reviewed and adopted a decision by the CPC Central Committee on deepening reform of Party and State institutions along with a plan for the reform.
The session also agreed to put forward part of the reform plan to the upcoming National People’s Congress (NPC) for deliberation in accordance with legal procedures.
The communiqué said that “the abuses that obstruct the market from playing a decisive role in resource allocation and hinder the government from better playing its role should be resolutely eliminated.” “This shows the CPC’s determination to modernize its governance system and its capacity to enhance globaliza-
tion. In the future, China will play a leading role in free trade and globalization, so the CPC is deepening reforms in the economic system to make China's future leadership more convincing to the international community,” said Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.
This is a positive message for China's economic partners since the environment for investment in China could be improved due to the modernized relationship between market and government, and restrictions on foreign investment in China could be reduced, Bai said.
The communiqué said the goal is to “streamline administration and delegate power” and “totally improve the efficiency of the government” to “build a service-oriented government.”
“This is not because of pressures from other countries. It comes from the increasing confidence and objective needs brought by fast economic development and strengthening economic power,” Bai said.
In the meantime, provincial and lower administrations will have more autonomy to act under the strict enforcement of orders and prohibitions from the CPC Central Committee. Improving, maintaining and strengthening the Party's all-round leadership is the priority of the reform of Party and State institutions, the communiqué said.
“The leadership of the Party will largely improve the efficiency of governance. In the past, the reform on State institutions focused on building ‘super-ministries' or ‘giant departments' which also concentrates authority and boosts efficiency, but unavoidably causes decentralization at higher-levels. The Party's all-round leadership will effectively end this problematic situation,” said Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee.
The meeting was attended by 202 CPC Central Committee members and 171 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee. Deputy secretaries of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and senior officials of relevant departments were also present at the meeting, Xinhua reported.
Candidate list for leadership
The session adopted a list of proposed candidates for State leadership, which is scheduled to be recommended to the first session of the 13th NPC, Xinhua reported.
It also adopted a proposed candidate list for the leadership of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is to be recommended to the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.
The NPC and CPPCC annual sessions, dubbed the two sessions, are scheduled to open on March 5 and March 3, respectively.