Xi’s new China sweeping away the rule of state

The massive reshaping of China’s power structure is gathering pace.

Xi Jinping applauds during the closing session of the National People's Congress this week. Picture: AFP

The massive reshaping of China’s power structure is gathering pace with the ruling communist party taking control from the government of a huge range of functions, from religious affairs to media.

China Central TV and China National Radio, including divisions that broadcast to the world — China Global Television Network and China Radio International — will merge to form Voice of China, echoing the US government’s Voice of America, whose signals are blocked by the government of President Xi Jinping.

The new Voice of China, with 14,000 staff, will come under the direct control of the party’s Central Propaganda Department.

The party’s already large ­United Front Work Department — which Mr Xi has described as one of its “magic weapons” — is given oversight of the State ­Ethnic Affairs Commission, and will absorb the State Administration of Religious Affairs and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

The three bodies once came under the control of the State Council or cabinet that leads the government structure in China.

The United Front has been stepping up its international efforts as it seeks to enlist ethnic Chinese living overseas in supporting the “great rejuvenation” of China under Mr Xi, and especially in opposing any independence push in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet or by Uighurs in the western province of Xinjiang.

Premier Li Keqiang stressed in his report at the this month’s ­National People’s Congress that “religions in China must be ­Chinese in orientation”. The new requirement covers Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists.

The all-powerful new National Supervisory Commission — which extends the remit of the party’s feared Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to every government employee at every level, and is accountable to the parliament, not the government — now takes over the ­Bribery Prevention Bureau.

Under Mr Xi, bodies formerly known as “leading small groups” will now be called commissions, and will take over a key role in ­policy formation from the regular party hierarchy and from government agencies in most major areas, including security, the economy and the internet.

New commissions — within the party, not government, structure — have been announced this week to extend the scope of this peak layer of authority in China. They will answer directly to Mr Xi, who chairs at least six of them.

One new commission is being established to take responsibility for education, to ensure oversight of ideological education — with potential implications for international links.

Another new commission will oversee the rule of law, taking a position above the NPC that has carriage of much of the legal ­apparatus. The new commission will provide direction in law ­making and in implementation by police and courts.

A central commission — the word central indicating a party body in China — will oversee the auditing of government departments and agencies. Oversight of personnel as well as spending by the state is also to come under the authority of the party, the former bureau responsible for public ­servants’ pay and conditions will shift within the party’s Organisation Department.

The foreign affairs commission, chaired by Mr Xi, is taking over the party’s own work group responsible for ocean and sea protection, which has substantial ­carriage for China’s South China Sea operations — underlining the weight given to co-ordinating such activities at the highest level.

This restructuring of the ­government transforms China more palpably into a party-state.

It marks a strong differentiation from China’s first 40 years of “reform and opening up” launched by Deng Xiaoping.

The launch of Mr Xi’s “new era” — while pledging to maintain China’s economic opening to the world — reverses the move under Deng Xiaoping to begin to separate the party from the state, now instead placing state institutions decisively under party control.