Draft of the “Big Department System” Exposed Expected “Regime Reform Committee” Might Abort
Recently, the reform draft of the “Big Department System”
was discussed in the Political Bureau conference.
The draft will be submitted to the approaching
second plenary meeting of the 18th CCP Central Committee for further discussion.
As disclosed by China's media, the re-organization of the
State Council aims to strengthen market supervision and
to improve administrative management on
the transportation system.
Nevertheless, the reform that people would like to see on
“energy”, “culture” and the establishment of a “regime reform committee” are not part of the re-org.
As reported by the state-run “Xinhua News Agency”,
Xi Jinping held a Political bureau conference on February 23.
In the conference, the attendees discussed the draft of
“Structure Reform and Function Transformation of the State Council” (Big Department System).
The content of the draft includes: Ministry of Civil Affairs'
duty in social administration will be enlarged;
Food Safety Committee of the State Council will be
merged with Food safety Supervision Department;
a new , Market Supervision Department,
will be established;
power of the National Bureau of Oceanography will
be enlarged, and comprehensive marine management will be strengthened;
the Ministry of Railways and the Department of
Transportation might be merged.
“Caixin.com” stated that the so-called “biggest surprise” is
reform on national food safety supervision.
It's possible that a new structure named
“Market Supervision Administration” might be established.
Local governments will be responsible for food safety,
with little intervention from the central government.
Currently, poisoned food is widely rampant in mainland China.
Pollution is destroying the environment.
Is it possible that this reform can solve the real
living problems of the Chinese people?
Zhang Jian, Scholar in China's social issues, claimed that
it will be impossible.
Zhang Jian: “In China, solving food safety problems is
as challenging as solving corruption problems.
Up to now, it's already been a wreck and rotten to the core.
The political regime must be reformed; otherwise,
there will be no hope of changing anything.
As long as the communist regime exists another day,
there will be poisoned milk powder, poisoned water and poisoned air.
Only when the communist regime collapses,
can all issues in China be solved.”
“Caixin.com” stated that the biggest regret of
the proposed reform is that “the Committee of Regime Reform” itself aborted.
The academic circles in China had been hoping that
the government could put aside its own interest and
establish a structure that can lead and advance
reform in China's economic system.
Zhang Jian: “People cannot understand why ‘the
Committee of Regime Reform’ was put aside,
they wonder why Xi Jinping is not continuing
political reform after taking office.
Based on the facts, the conclusion can be drawn that
the subject of political reform is only raised by the communists as an aid in maintaining rule.
This means that they can continue exploiting people and
stealing national property.
This is exactly what the Chinese Communist Party has
been doing for years.”
In the draft, power of the National Bureau of Oceanography
will be enlarged to strengthen marine management.
This move was seen as related to China's East Sea and
South Sea sovereignty dispute.
Nevertheless, the Department of Energy, Ministry of Culture,
Radio and Television Department,
and the State General Administration of Sports
were not listed in the draft.
What people would like to see most is the combination of
the Ministry of Railways with the Department of Transportation.
Zhang Lifan, an independent scholar in China, told Hong Kong's
“Apple Daily” that it had been part of the plan that
the Ministry of Railways would have been merged into
the Department of Transportation years ago.
However, the plan was strongly opposed by Liu Zhijun,
head of the Ministry of Railways at the time.
With support from Jiang Zemin, the Ministry of Railways
is like an independent kingdom and nobody dares to touch it.
Liu Zhijun has fallen due to corruption, and people are
calling for the removal of the Ministry of Railways and
for it's merging with the Department of Transportation,
this last will be a sign of the potency of the reform.
Liu Yinquan, Director of the Central Committee of the
“Social Democratic Party of China”, pointed out that
the root problems of corruption and inefficiency of
China's officials cannot be solved through repairing the administration structure here and there.
The main reason is that people don't have any real
supervisory power in such an authoritarian system.
Lin Yinquan: “The reform of combining and adjusting
some government units, to a certain extent,
an improve the efficiencies of the officials involved.
However, it cannot solve the root problems of
China's political system.
It's impossible for it to solve the problems of corruption,
inefficiency and bureaucracy that people are most against ”
A specialist involved in discussion of the Draft disclosed to
“Caixin.com” that it's possible that the draft would be changed.
Only after it is discussed in second plenary meeting of the
18th CCP Central Committee, will it be finally determined.
