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To put it in a crude Australian context, imagine the entire government being run by Labor Party powerbrokers at headquarters, with parliament and public servants charged with executing the party’s decisions.
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The changes mean that rather than focusing on specific practical tasks that make society function, such as taxes, education and healthcare, officials are first and foremost required to implement the ideological spirit of the party and its leader, Xi.
Some of those policies might create better outcomes by redistributing wealth, for example, but assessing them has become much more difficult as the veil of secrecy over Beijing’s decision-making grows ever more opaque.
Last week, the National People’s Congress announced that the once-a-year press conference of the head of the State Council, Premier Li Qiang, had been indefinitely cancelled. This week’s revision to the Organic Law officially eliminated rules that required the State Council to disclose “all matters involving public interests” in a “timely, comprehensive, accurate and specific manner”. Instead, the new law says matters discussed should be “promptly made public, except for those that need to be kept confidential according to law”.
Dr Willy Lam, a veteran Chinese elite politics expert from Hong Kong who is a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said the spectre of Xi’s domination was not enough.
“His grip on power must be made clear to everybody. He wants the world to know beyond any doubt that he is running the show,” Lam said. “And Li Qiang is someone who serves at Xi’s pleasure.”
Xi Jinping (centre) and Premier Li Qiang (to his right) leave the hall at the end of Monday’s National People’s Congress.Credit: AP
China’s regular threats to Taiwan mean the enshrining of the party doctrine in the Organic Law could yet have more ominous implications. The Chinese military is already loyal to the party, not the country. So, too, are its courts.
“The Organic Law is the preparation for the eventuality that Xi Jinping one day thinks it is necessary to run the country by decree because of war,” said Lam.
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The modified law, legitimised by the thousands of votes at the congress, gives the party and Xi the power to ensure their plans are implemented without question.
Until Monday, Xi’s influence over the State Council was omnipresent but unwritten.
Now, his power is even more explicit.