President Xi presses concrete reform measures

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping told a meeting of the top reform planning committee on Friday that concrete reform measures are needed so the people "feel" the progress.

Xi, speaking during the tenth meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Continuing Reform, pledged to organize all the reform efforts adopted by the third and fourth plenary sessions of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee.

The measures must target important issues and the public must feel the benefits, he said.

As the CPC Central Committee has entrusted the coordination of reform plans to the leading group, local Party organs and governments must play their part and implement the central leadership's decisions, a statement issued after the meeting read.

The leading group will better supervise implementation, it continued.

At Friday's meeting, the leading group adopted four reform plans on soccer management, judicial independence, external supervision on procuratorates and a pilot project to supervise the business activities of relatives of officials in Shanghai.

Soccer development

The soccer reform plan will overcome the country's "defective system", which has impeded the development of national soccer, and provide better "institutional guarantees" for its development.

China has only ever qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, despite its overwhelming performance at the Olympic Games and other world sporting events.

Soccer departments will be encouraged to take bold steps and restructure their hierarchy.

The statement proposed earlier identification of talent and the integration of professional clubs, school teams and amateur organizations.

Judicial independence

China will begin blacklisting and punishing officials who interfere in judicial activities.

This measure forms part of a broader legal package adopted by a key session of the CPC Central Committee in October.

Party and government officials are integral to realizing rule of law in China, and should steer clear of judicial investigations and trials, the statement said.

Officials' clean records in this regard will be taken into consideration during appraisal.

Citizen supervisors

Since 2010, Chinese procuratorates have invited the public to supervise their work. These "citizen supervisors" have helped protect the legal rights of suspects in graft investigations.

The new initiative will improve the selection of citizen supervisors, while giving them more responsibilities.

It will be updated according to the results of a pilot project launched by the Supreme People's Procuratorate last September across two municipalities and eight provinces.

Stricter scrutiny

The Party in Shanghai decided to more closely regulate the business activities of its officials' relatives.

The leading group endorsed Shanghai's decision and asked Party and government departments to assist.

The experience in Shanghai will be rolled out nationwide if it is effective.