Election results from provincial-level party congresses confirm
that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is eliminating a certain
number of deputy party chief posts in a continuing effort to
streamline governance.
An average of three such posts have been cut in China's Liaoning, Henan, Anhui, Shanxi provinces, and in Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions.
There will now be only two deputy party head posts in these
provinces, one of whom will be the provincial governor. The other
deputy party head post will be responsible for party affairs or
discipline supervision.
Officials serving as party secretaries will no longer occupy
posts in fields like the economy, health or education, because
these posts overlapped with vice-governor duties.
"It's hard for me to decide who to listen to when there are two
leaders," said Wu Xuguang, a construction official in Xiuning
County of Anhui Province, in an interview with a Beijing-based
newspaper.
The thinning of party secretaries will streamline
decision-making procedures and enhance governance efficiency, said
Wu Zhongmin, a sociology director with the Party School of CPC
Central Committee.
Prior to the downsizing, secretaries occupy many posts in the
local party standing committee, which is the provincial
policy-making body. In the new set-up, secretary posts will be cut
and more non-secretary officials brought in to the standing
committee.
"This will curb the dominance of secretaries in the committee --
it is another step taken by the party to realize group governance
and democracy," said Liu Suhua, a scholar with the Party
School.
Even before the provincial-level reshuffling, reelections at
lower levels had already eliminated thousands of party posts.
In central China's Hunan Province alone, over 5,600 deputy party
chief posts at the township level were slashed, an average of 2.6
fewer such posts per town, local government sources said.
Nationwide, an average of 200 county level and 40 city level
party posts have been eliminated, according to a report in the
latest issue of Southern Weekly.
With China determined to deepen political reforms in the first
phase of the 11th five-year plan period (2006-2010), the latest
provincial party congresses have witnessed a wave of personnel
changes nationwide.
The People's Daily has hailed the ongoing party
leadership downsizing as a "significant reform," and warned that in
the reform, numerous party cadres "will be transferred from
important posts or be demoted".
The reform will make it much harder for profiteers to capture a
government position and help curb corruption, said Wang Guixiu, a
scholar with the Party School.
(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2006)