Party plan for reform unveiled

Institutional changes designed to promote leadership, efficiency

The Communist Party of China Central Committee unveiled a massive plan on Wednesday to deepen institutional reform of the Party, the top legislature, the central government, the top political advisory body and the armed police forces.

The institutional reform will focus on enhancing the Party’s overall leadership, modernizing the State governance system and capacity, promoting the coordination of the institutions and improving their work efficiency, according to the plan.

“The Party exercises overall leadership over all areas of endeavor in every part of the country,” the plan says.

A national supervisory commission will be established to enhance the Party’s leadership over anti-graft work and place all people who exercise public power under supervision, according to the plan.

A central committee on advancing the rule of law will be set up to enhance the CPC Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership over building the rule of law in China. The committee’s office will be located at the Ministry of Justice.

A central audit commission will be set up to enhance the CPC Central Committee’s leadership over audit work. The major duties of the commission include putting forward audit policies, auditing and supervising major policies and reform plans and auditing the annual budget and expenses of the CPC Central Committee.

Four other commissions will be established based on the previous four central leading groups — deepening overall reform, internet security and informatization, financial and economic affairs and foreign affairs.

A central leading group on education will be established to enhance the CPC Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership in the area, speeding up modernization of China’s educational system and meeting the people’s demands for education.

A new Party School of the CPC Central Committee will be established with the merger of the current Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the Chinese Academy of Governance.

The Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee will take charge in the unified leadership over media and published works, and also will administer movie issues, including the import and export of films.

The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature,

will be reformed with the creation of a social building committee and the renaming of two other committees, according to the plan.

The third part of the institutional reform plan is reform of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, which was adopted at the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress on Saturday.

According to the plan, a conglomerate of national radio and television entities will be established on the basis of China National Radio, China Central Television, China Global Television Network and China Radio International.

The Chinese People’s Politi- cal Consultative Conference National Committee, the top political advisory body, will be reformed with the creation of a committee for agriculture and rural affairs and the renaming of two other committees.

The plan also includes institutional reform of the country’s law-enforcement system, with the reorganizing and building of law-enforcement forces in such areas as market supervision, environmental protection, transportation and agriculture.

The People’s Armed Police Force will no longer administer forces handling gold, forestry, water and electricity, and the officers and soldiers of these troops will be transferred from military service to civil service.

According to the plan, the Party’s leadership must be firmly upheld and the Party’s will must be fully implemented in the reform of social organizations.

The plan also sets guidelines for the reform of local-level Party and government institutions, highlighting the Party’s overall leadership and focusing on the proper adjustment of institutions.

The reform of the Party’s central authorities and the state institutions should be completed by the end of this year, and all the local-level institutional reform tasks must be finished by the end of March 2019, the plan states.