China’s Xi gears up for sweeping government overhaul

Bloomberg

Chinese President Xi Jinping is preparing to extend a sweeping government overhaul that would give the Communist Party greater control over everything from financial services to manufacturing to entertainment in the world’s second-largest economy, two people familiar with the matter said.
The changes are part of a proposed “CPC leadership system” approved by the party on February 28, the people said. Details of that document, which called for merging more than a dozen state agencies, are due to be revealed by March 17 when the National People’s Congress — China’s rubber-stamp legislature — votes on the plan.
The leadership expected ministries to complete the reorganization within the year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. In some cases, party organisations would completely absorb state agencies, the people said.
“It marks a significant shift in governance philosophy and unabashedly puts the party in charge and declares that this shows the superiority of China’s socialist system,” said Dali Yang, a political scientist with the University of Chicago. “The move will fuse the party with state institutions ensure the party is in the lead.”
The moves would solidify Communist Party control over key functions of government, further centralizing power in the nation of 1.4 billion people. That represents China’s most decisive shift yet from 1980s reforms led by Deng Xiaoping aimed at professionalising the government after Mao Zedong’s disruptive party-led political movements led to famine and bloodshed.

ALTERNATIVE MODEL
At the time, Deng had said “the separation of the party and government” was necessary to unleash an economic boom that continues to endure. Yet Xi has gone in the opposite direction, arguing that China’s centralised system provides an alternative model for countries to get rich without embracing Western democracy.
“A primary task of deepening reform of the party and state institutions is to strengthen the CPC’s leadership in every sector,” the Central Committee said, citing a decision during the body’s conclave last week in Beijing.
Since taking power in 2012, Xi has re-asserted the party’s authority with new loyalty rules and a series of panels to take over policy-making duties traditionally left to Premier Li Keqiang and his State Council. That led to confusion over who was resp-
onsible for policies and prompted multinational corporations to start lobbying secretive party agencies about policy changes.