THE reform of China’s State Council institutions is an important step in enhancing the capacity and efficiency of governance, so as to accomplish new tasks in building a modern socialist country amid a complicated global environment. The reform plan, which was submitted to the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress for deliberation, focuses on solving some difficult problems of public concern and will have a major impact on economic and social development. The reform emphasizes various important areas in China’s modernization drive, such as science and technology, financial supervision, data management, rural revitalization, intellectual property rights protection, and elderly care. It aims to deepen institutional reform in key areas to make the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over socialist modernization more sound in institutional setup, optimized in functional allocation, refined in institutional mechanisms, and more efficient in operation. The restructured sci-tech ministry will strengthen its management duties in strategic planning, institutional reform and resource coordination, and will improve the new-type national mobilization system while optimizing the management of technological innovation. Sci-tech innovation lies at the heart of China’s modernization drive and must be supported by a sound system. In the face of international sci-tech competition and external containment and suppression, it has become even more urgent for the country to straighten out its sci-tech leadership and administration system, so as to better coordinate resources to make breakthroughs in core technologies and accelerate the realization of greater self-reliance in the field. The national financial regulatory administration, to be set up on the basis of the current banking and insurance watchdog, will strengthen supervision in different forms, as well as risk management and prevention, to ensure the stable and healthy development of the financial market and better protect people’s financial interests. Over the past decade, China has systematically and comprehensively restructured the functions of the Party and state institutions, thus providing a strong guarantee for progress. China’s governance has been significantly improved. However, the new development phase, the new environment and new strategic opportunities for development have made further reform all the more necessary. With the continued reform and opening up, the institutional strength of Chinese socialism will become more prominent, and more vitality will be injected into the Chinese socialist modernization drive. (Xinhua) | 