Vice President Wang Qishan (left) and President Xi Jinping (right)

On March 17, Xi Jinping was elected to a second term as state President in a unanimous vote by the 2,970 delegates to the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC). For the first time Xi took an oath on the constitution in front of the NPC delegates.

Wang Qishan was elected Vice President with only one dissenting vote. Wang was Chairman of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) during Xi’s first term as Party General Secretary and State President as he led the fight against corruption. At the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress in October last year Wang was not re-elected to the Central Committee and thus had to relinquish his seat on the uppermost level seven-member Standing Committee. Xi Jinping was also reconfirmed as Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China. Li Zhanshu received a unanimous vote to become Chairman of the National People’s Congress.

Wang Yang, a Member of the Politburo Standing Committee, was elected Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at its closing session. Altogether 24 Vice Chairpersons and 300 Standing Committee members were also elected.

The NPC endorsed President Xi’s nomination of Li Keqiang to serve a second five-year term as Premier of the State Council, China’s central government. Xi’s top economic adviser Liu He was named a Vice Premier. The list of newly-appointed government ministers is available here. Wang Yi remains Minister of Foreign Affairs with the additional title of State Councilor; Liu Kun is Minister of Finance; Zhong Shan is reconfirmed as Minister of Commerce; and Yi Gang is appointed Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), replacing Zhou Xiaochuan, who had held the post for the past 15 years.

The NPC unveiled an ambitious plan to revamp the central government structure, with more than two dozen ministries and commissions affected. The number of ministerial-level government agencies will be reduced by eight, while seven vice-ministerial agencies will also be abolished. A new Ministry of Emergency Management, a Ministry of National Resources, and a Ministry of Veteran Affairs will be created. The most important new commission is the National Supervisory Commission under Director Yang Xiaodu. It reports directly to the NPC and combines the anti-corruption functions of the Ministry of Supervision and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Moreover, it has a higher rank than the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. It has jurisdiction not only over Communist Party members, but over all public servants. The banking and insurance regulatory commissions will be merged. A new National Market Supervision and Administration Bureau will take on the responsibilities of quality checks, food and drug safety, anti-monopoly investigations and pricing administration – areas that previously fell under various government bodies. A separate commission will handle international development cooperation. The last reshuffle of a similar scale took place in 1998 when several ministries were abolished.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will lose some of its powers with other agencies taking over some of its functions. The NDRC will lose responsibility for creating development zones to a new natural resources ministry, while its climate change unit will be transferred to the environment ministry. It will no longer approve agriculture investment projects and its antitrust team will come under the new market supervision administration. In addition, its oversight of “key national projects” will be transferred to the National Audit Office, and the new health commission will take over pricing of medicines and health care services. The Commission has been blamed for exacerbating overcapacity in industries ranging from steel to solar panels and of approving too many subway projects. The Ministry of Culture will be merged with the National Tourism Administration (NTA).

After the restructuring, China’s central government now has 26 Ministries and Commissions.