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China economy
ChinaPolitics

New work rules for China’s State Council put the party firmly in charge

  • Amended working rules released by China’s cabinet remove previous provisions that ensured transparency
  • Beijing’s power structure is now ‘a clear pyramid with the party on top’, analyst says

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Amended working rules released by China’s cabinet have removed previous provisions that ensured transparency. Photo: Xinhua
William Zheng

The State Council, China’s cabinet, has made major changes to its work rules that add specific clauses saying it will closely follow instructions from the Communist Party, while removing provisions related to government transparency.

The State Council released an amended version of government working rules on Friday, its first since 2018. The amendments were approved at the first plenary meeting of the new-term State Council convened on March 17.

03:24

China’s new premier Li Qiang outlines priorities in first press conference

China’s new premier Li Qiang outlines priorities in first press conference
In that meeting, the new premier, Li Qiang, said the government’s mission was to focus on “implementation” of the party’s decisions.
The major revisions came just weeks after Beijing announced a major overhaul of party and state organisations, further consolidating decision-making power within the party apparatus while leaving execution and implementation primarily to the State Council. The party will create new financial, technology and social work commissions to consolidate all relevant departments.

The latest changes are a bid by the State Council to adapt to the new “top-down” power structure between the party’s leadership and cabinet, according to Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

“They are no longer parallel structures. Now it is a clear pyramid with the party on top. So the State Council is adapting its mode of work to fit in,” Wu said.

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