杂志汇中国与非洲

China’s Xinhua News Agency calls it the “biggest government reshuffle in years” in what is seen as a dramatic continuation of the previous seven rounds of cabinet restructuring that began in 1982.

The institutional restructuring plan of the State Council, China’s cabinet, was adopted on March 17 at the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the First Session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s national legislature.

“The reform is unprecedentedly large, deep and expansive,” said Guo An, an NPC deputy and Mayor of Nanchang, capital of southeast China’s Jiangxi Province. “It will optimize the government’s functions by promoting coordinated actions and improving levels of management and public service to better satisfy people’s expectations and national developmental needs in a new era.”

Eliminating confusion

In total, the number of ministerial-level entities is reduced by eight and that of vice-ministerial-level entities by seven after the reshuffle.

According to the restructuring plan, functions that have long overlapped are integrated. For example, four ministries of land and resources, water resources, environmental protection and agriculture were involved in water pollution treatment and prevention before the shake-up. When water pollution was exposed by the media or local residents, these departments had often passed the buck among themselves instead of dealing with the problem immediately. The new Ministry of Ecological Environment is responsible for the compiling and implementation of ecological environment policies, plans and standards, as well as ecological environment monitoring and law enforcement, aiming to put all problems concerning pollution under one roof.

“When a frog jumps into a river, it is in the charge of the Ministry of Agriculture. But when the frog is back on land, it is the State Administration of Forestry’s responsibility,” said Lou Jiwei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China’s top political advisory body, referring to the previously rigid division of responsibilities between government departments. “It is these types of problems that have confused people about where they should go when they need consultation or help.”

“The reform comes at a crucial time,” Chen Xi, head of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said in an article in the People’s Daily. “It will support the efforts over the next three years toward building a moderately prosperous society and lay a foundation for building a great modern socialist country by the middle of the century.”

While some central government departments are keeping their original names, their functions will change considerably. For example, many powers of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) have been transferred to newly-formed or restructured ministries and administrations. For example, the new Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has incorporated part of the functions that belonged to the NDRC as well as ministries of commerce, land and resources and water resources before the reshuffle.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs isn’t simply adding the words ‘rural affairs’ to the name of the previous Ministry of Agriculture,” said Dang Guoying, an expert on agriculture from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “The development of agriculture can’t be achieved simply by working on the farmland. The change of the name shows the importance attached to the social development of rural areas.”

Dang said agriculture-related funds in the past were dispatched to several departments and the Ministry of Agriculture could only manage part of the allocations. Now, with the reform, such funds will be forwarded to one ministry, optimizing its use.

Another example will see th e new Ministry of Natural Resources, which merges the Ministry of Land and Resources and the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, combines oversight of all types of natural resources - from land to oceans - in one place.

Deputies vote for an institutional restructuring plan of the State Council at the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the First Session of the 13th NPC on March 17 New entities

Besides the ministries that combine or replace old ones, some totally new entities have emerged, such as the ministries of veterans affairs and emergency management.

The Ministry of Veterans Affairs is in charge of making and implementing policies and regulations related to demobilized military personnel and dealing with related affairs such as their reemployment and training. Its establishment aims to protect the rights and interests of military personnel and their families, improve services and management systems for demobilized military personnel and promote public respect for military service as an occupation.

The Ministry of Emergency Management oversees the compiling and implementation of emergency management plans, as well as organizes rescue and relief for disasters and workplace accidents. It is also in charge of work safety and the prevention and control of fire, flood, drought and geographical disasters. There are also new agencies under the State Council after the reshuffle. One example of these is the International Development Cooperation Agency which will be formed by merging some functions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce. When unveiling the institutional restructuring plan to the First Session of the 13th NPC on March 13, State Councilor Wang Yong said the new agency will “give full play to foreign aid as a key means of major-country diplomacy.”

The State Immigration Administration, set up under the Ministry of Public Security, will formulate and enforce immigration rules since “the number of foreigners working and living in China has been increasing, raising new requirements on immigration administration and services,” according to Wang.

The State Market Regulatory Administration appears set to be a powerful new regulator for companies operating in China, incorporating functions of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the China Food and Drug Administration. The changes also create the country’s first agency specializing in anti-monopoly issues.

In another case, the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has been formed to replace both the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, with the goal of solving existing problems such as overlap in responsibilities, cross-regulation and lack of supervision. The new body will enhance oversight of both banking and insurance industries and be more effective in forestalling risks in the financial sector.

Wang told lawmakers on March 13 that the reform, which focuses on institutional restructuring in key areas, will strengthen the government’s functions on economic management, market supervision, social management, public service and ecological and environmental protection.

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