The Third Plenum speaks in broad but telling strokes

As the Third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, or the Third Plenum, ended on Tuesday in Beijing, the communiqu out of the four-day event laid out broad-stroke directions, with a few unexpected moves.

The decision to establish a national security committee - something similar to the US' National Security Council - is one of them. Its mission, according to the communiqu: "to perfect the state security system and state security strategy, and to ensure national security".

Jon Taylor, a professor of political science at the University of St Thomas, said the four-day convention showed that the Party made certain to consolidate its power.

"The establishment of the State security committee may signal a shift in responsibilities away from the Politics and Law Commission in favor of a more holistic, interdisciplinary and inter-service approach to security and social stability," said Taylor, an avid China watcher.

As for comparing the new committee to the US National Security Council, Taylor argues that "more details" are needed before making that conclusion.

"That said, the communiqu from the Third Plenum seems to spell it out quite simply -that the establishment of a national security committee is aimed at improving the national security system and the country's security strategy," he added.

The Third Plenum is traditionally known as an event that sets out the economic agenda for China. Its history traces back to 1978 when the "reform and opening up" policy was brought onto the agenda as the Party convened its third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee.

China's "reform and opening up" policy, which started in agriculture back in the 1970s, has gone through different stages and achieved substantial results. China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth increased at about 9 percent between 1978 and 2005. The extreme poverty rate in China - the percentage of the overall population living on less than $1.25 a day - has dropped from 60 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2005 and 12 percent in 2010, according to a recent United Nations report.

The just-concluded session's communiqu - often seen as the blueprint for the country's development - noted that the focus of the restructuring of the economic system is to "allow the market to play a decisive rolein the allocation of resources".

"The central leading group on comprehensively deepening reforms will be responsible for the overall reform design and the implementation of reform policies," the communiqu stated.

"I suspect that the Central Party Leading Group's comprehensive reform plan will emphasize this decisive role, while still emphasizing that China remains guided by the principles of a socialist market economy under the direction of the CPC," said Taylor.

"China has been so dependent on foreign investment because it has very under-developed domestic capital markets. So a more developed domestic capital market with fair access to different types of firms inside China, as well as international firms, will be viewed very positively for sure," said Susan Shirk, former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration.

The leaders also pledged to improve the anti-corruption mechanism and to strengthen the independence of the country's judiciary system.

Shirk, who spoke with China Daily prior to the Plenum, argued that besides major economic policies, she expected the government to deepen its reforms of the country's legal system. "There is some speculation that they might reduce the authority of local governments over the courts - that's one rumor that's being circulated - which would be extremely significant from my perspective," said Shirk.

"My own view is that anything on the legal system will be welcomed very much," said Shirk. "You cannot really fight corruption using purely methods inside the Communist Party. Instead people will always be suspicious that anti-corruption is just a form of competition among elites."

Shirk explained that the country needs an "independent legal system to clean up business behavior and behavior of the government".

"One way to get started with that is to break the link between local politicians and local courts," she noted.

The outcome of the Third Plenum - even with outlines and moves - is still regarded as something "general" and "broad" by some experts.

But Shirk, who now teaches at UC San Diego, explained that it is important to understand the "general direction" and "scope" that the Third Plenum has formed.

Contact the writer at yuweizhang@chinadailyusa.com