Xi to head leading group for overall reform

BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping will head a leading group for overall reform, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee decided on Monday.

The political bureau decided to set up the group to lead the work to comprehensively deepen reform and appoint Xi as its head, according to a decision adopted at a political bureau meeting held on Monday.

This is the latest development of a reform blueprint put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

A decision made at the session first came up with the idea of establishing such a leading group, an important reform move.

The leading group will be in charge of "designing reform on an overall basis, arranging and coordinating reform, pushing forward reform as a whole, and supervising the implementation of reform plans," the document said.

It will research and decide on major guidelines, policies and schemes for systematic reform in economic, political, cultural, social and environmental sectors as well as the Party system, the document said.

The group will lead major reforms at the national level and address major issues with nationwide significance and long-term effect, which involve different regions and departments.

It will guide, push forward and supervise the implementation of major reform policies, the document said.

When explaining the reform blueprint to the plenary session in November, Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said it is hard for certain or several departments to push forward such a complicated systematic reform so a higher level of leadership is needed.

The leading group will allow the Party play a better role of commanding the whole situation and coordinating the efforts of all quarters, he said.

Prof. Xie Chuntao, with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, told Xinhua that setting up the group is necessary because reform this time will be both unprecedented in scale and degree. A goal has been set to "achieve decisive results in the reform of key sectors by 2020."

To achieve this, an institution that exercises core leadership is essential because reform on such a large scale will involve not only government institutions but also those of the Party, legislature and judiciary, said Xie.

Experts also suggested that top-level design and leadership is very much needed in future reform to break entrenched vested interests and boost confidence.