BEIJING — China on Tuesday announced a government reorganization aimed at improving government performance in troubled sectors such as energy, food safety and the environment. But analysts said it is a relatively cautious plan that still leaves room for turf battles and fiefdoms among sharp-elbowed bureaucrats.
Under the outline submitted to the National People’s Congress, five so-called superministries will be created and several other agencies abolished or revamped, according to the state- run New China News Agency.
This is the sixth such major overhaul since China embarked on market reform in the late 1970s, unleashing the entrepreneurial energy of China’s 1.3 billion people and leaving the Communist Party-led government struggling to keep up. Some measure of reform had been expected when the National People’s Congress opened its two-week session March 5.
The new ministries will oversee transportation, construction, environmental protection, social security and information policy, including the Internet.
But other government agencies managed to resist consolidation. Efforts to create a separate energy ministry, for example, were unsuccessful.
