Party gets more sway over state with NPC law change

The National People's Congress revised a law to effectively grant the Communist Party more executive control over China's cabinet, the State Council,

after canceling the premier's post-parliament news conference for the first time in three decades.

The amended State Council Organic Law passed by 2,883 delegate votes, with eight opposing and nine abstaining, during the closing day of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

It was the latest in a series of measures in recent years that have gradually eroded the executive authority of the council, helmed by Premier Li Qiang, which nominally oversees China's 21 government ministries as well as local governments.

Experts say the amendment of the law for the first time since 1982 continues a trend of transferring more power into the party's hands, leaving the government to faithfully implement party directives. Newly added articles stress that the council must "resolutely uphold the party central committee's authority and its centralized and unified leadership" and follow Xi Jinping Thought, the party's name for the president's signature ideology.

"This is a significant shift in the reorganization of executive authority," said Chinese University law professor Ryan Mitchell. "While it is always clear that the head of the party is the most influential figure in the overall hierarchy, the exact division of labor in policymaking and, especially, oversight of policy execution, can be opaque."

NPC standing committee vice chairman Li Hongzhong has said the revision is intended to "fully implement the constitution," changed in 2018 to reassert the party's leadership over everything.

Since taking power in 2012, Xi has established new central party committees overseeing ministries that report directly to him. Some even encroach on economic and financial policy, traditionally viewed as falling under the premier's remit.

China last year unveiled a sweeping reorganization that created a new party entity to oversee some ministries. Shortly afterwards, the State Council also amended its rules to clarify that executive decision-making power lies within the party.

Since the new rules passed, the council no longer holds weekly meetings.

"We're still in the middle of this years-long transformation of the party-state structure, with likely more such changes to come," said Georgetown University Asian law professor Thomas Kellogg.