China's 13th National People's Congress has approved a plan to reorganize the State Council's ministries and other functional administrations. The institutional reshuffling is profound, comprehensive and unprecedented, as it aims to achieve the goal set by the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in October 2017 of realizing a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by the middle of this century.

The governmental restructure cut eight ministries and seven vice-ministerial administrations. Some ministries have been reorganized to include more governing functions, such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the National Health Commission. Some ministries or administrations are newly created to meet the needs of a modern economy and social changes, particularly the National Supervisory Commission, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the State Immigration Administration, the State International Development and Cooperation Agency, and the Ministry of Emergency Management.

The former structure of the State Council, China's Cabinet, was somewhat outdated and unable to meet the demands brought about by the need to build a modern, efficient and market-oriented economy. Some former state organs shared a similar function, restricting the State's ability to focus on solving a problem without having to seek help from a number of State-level departments. For example, a particular rural development project used to be executed by a few ministry-level bodies, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Science and Technology. By moving the specific function of rural development from other ministries to the new Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, State resources can be mobilized more quickly and used more efficiently under the management and supervision of a single ministry.

Another problem in the old organizational structure was that many vice-ministerial administrations were created more or less on an ad hoc basis to deal with a particular issue at the time of their creation. For example, the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs was created when China needed many foreign experts to help its economic opening-up and development. Over time, the bureau played a much less important role relative to the ever-rising complexity of the national economy. As a result, it has now become part of the new Ministry of Science and Technology, which now also manages the National Natural Science Foundation of China, another vice-ministerial body.

Other State administrations restructured in the same way include the China National Tourism Administration, the State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee and the State Council Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Commission. The purpose of this reshuffle is to reduce the number of State administrations, improve the efficiency of governance and provide space to accommodate newly created and more important State departments.

Some ministries are newly created or reorganized to meet the needs of a rapidly changing society and to satisfy people's rising demands. For example, the Ministry of Ecological Environment, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Emergency Management, and the State Supervisory Commission have been created or reorganized with extended functions because they are designed to carry out China's five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy. The "five spheres" are political, economic, social, cultural and ecological, and the "four comprehensives" are to "comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society, comprehensively deepen reform, comprehensively implement the rule of law, and comprehensively strengthen Party discipline".

Under the core leadership of CPC Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping in a new era, the Party will strengthen its leadership role in all aspects of Chinese society and government, which is the unique and defining feature of an advanced socialist society with Chinese characteristics. The Party and the Chinese people must have "four confidences" ­— in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The present institutional reform will set up a strong, efficient and more transparent State and Party apparatus that will allow the Party to play its core leadership role with maximum efficiency and absolute authority. It will also allow every State department to execute its duty with full authority and bear consequent responsibility if it does not perform well or makes serious mistakes. The entire administrative system will carry out the goals and objectives set out by the "five constructions with one purpose" and the "Four Comprehensives" strategies promulgated by the Party for China to realize its "Two Centenary Goals", that is, to build a moderately prosperous society by 2020 and to build a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist country by the middle of this century.

Shujie Yao is the Cheung Kong professor of economics at Chongqing University and the University of Nottingham, Ningbo. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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