Chinese President made head of new military, civilian reforms committee
What's the story
Chinese President Xi Jinping was appointed as the head of the Commission for Integrated Military and Civilian Development. The agency would be tasked with making decisions, deliberation and coordination of major issues regarding the integrated development of China's military and civilian sectors. The decision was announced at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee.
Profile
Xi Jinping: Profile
Xi Jinping is the current General Secretary of the China'>Communist Party of China (CPC), President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Effectively, he is the head of the party, state and military in China. In 2016, he was endorsed as the "core" leader of the CPC, a position enjoyed previously only by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
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The Communist Party of China is China
The Communist Party in China calls all the shots on policy development and implementation in China. It does so by establishing various committees to steer reforms in different sectors. These commissions are tasked with drafting policy changes which are then implemented by the Chinese government.
The CPC
China's internal power struggles
Xi's predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin came to power in the wake of Deng Xiaoping's death. At the time, the President and Premier of China had equal powers and served as a balance to each other. However, individually either leader did not wield enough power to influence party decisions. This meant their rule and policy initiatives were based largely on compromise.
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Jintao, Zemin did not have Xi's influence
The era of strongman leadership ended with Deng's death in 1997. Jiang and Hu had to rule by consensus and compromise. Jiang, for example, was forced to abandon a proposed national security committee similar to one established by Xi because of strong internal resistance.
XI Jinping
Xi's rise
When Xi came to power in 2012, China was faced with growing public discontent over corruption, the widening wealth gap and problems caused by unbalanced development. Xi's crackdown on government corruption and quashing of internal party dissent, led to the restoration of people's faith in the government. Xi also took over drafting policy changes at party plenaries, a responsibility previously held by the Premier.
Xi and the party
Committees and commissions
Xi created and heads some of the most high-profile groups or commissions in the party. These include the Central National Security Commission, which helped create several anti-terrorism and espionage laws used to crack-down on separatism. The Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, set up in 2013 is headed by Xi and is tasked with implementing reforms across all sectors.
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Some current posts held by Xi
Xi hold 11 other official posts apart from President including, Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Battle Command of the People's Liberation Army, Leader of the Central Leading Group for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs.