Possible reforms to security agencies expose CCP's anxiety over external and internal risks

The Two Sessions (两会, Lianghui) - the annual meetings of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) - is just around the corner.

Following the reshuffle of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership at the 20th Party Congress in October last year, the new teams leading the State Council, NPC and CPPCC were expected to be in the spotlight of the Two Sessions. However, the focus immediately shifted to the implementation of the reform plan for party and government agencies, which was approved during the second plenary session of the 20th CCP Central Committee that closed on 28 February.

Last week, Hong Kong and US media revealed that this round of reforms will be intensive with two new commissions set up at the party and state level - an internal affairs commission to coordinate public security, household registration and anti-terrorism, and the Central Financial Work Commission to take charge of financial regulation.

The news has not been confirmed by state media, and the details are unclear, but Chinese President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's comments to representatives outside the party (党外人士) roughly signal that there is some truth to the chatter.

During a discussion on democracy at Zhongnanhai on 28 February, Xi said that the overall reform plan will highlight major sectors and will be "targeted, intensive and wide-ranging, touching on deep-rooted interests". It will focus on resolving difficult major issues of public attention, and have a major impact on socioeconomic development. These comments allude to the intensity and scope of the reforms.

Xi further highlighted that the 20th Party Congress gave clear instructions to deepen financial reforms, boost the CCP Central Committee's unified leadership over science and technological work, strengthen the government's responsibility system and organisational structure, improve the CCP's decision and policymaking coordination agencies, and enhance resource allocation among agencies.

In addition, there were calls to promote grassroots governance based on party-building, step up party-building efforts among enterprises, and streamline party-building efforts and management frameworks among trade associations, academic societies and chambers of commerce.

Evidently, this round of reforms for party and government agencies aims to realise the plans of the 20th Party Congress. Meanwhile, finance, technology, the government responsibility system, the CCP's grassroots governance, and the party-building framework in trade associations and the rest, are all within the scope of reform.

The 20th Party Congress report also stressed the issue of security, emphasising firmly taking a holistic approach to national security, coordinating external and internal security, and setting up a dedicated system.

The first item is improving the national security system, upholding the Central Committee's "centralized, unified leadership over national security work", enhancing the leadership system in national security, and strengthening the mechanisms for coordinating national security work. In addition, it also mentioned the need to strengthen the capacity for safeguarding national security, enhance public safety governance, and improve the social governance system.

The report clearly signals that national and public security will be a major part of this round of reforms.

Last week, Ming Pao cited information that this round of reform would see the establishment of an internal affairs commission directly under the CCP Central Committee. The commission would integrate the functions of public security, immigration, household registration, transport, anti-terrorism and counter-espionage, and even social organisation management under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, with current Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong as its head.

The report assessed that this would explain Wang's promotion to the Central Committee Secretariat after the 20th Party Congress, since public security ministers normally do not enter the secretariat. The report added that the relationship between the new internal affairs commission and the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (CPLAC) - the party's highest security body that oversees all legal enforcement agencies, including the police force - remains unclear.

However, it is certain that the internal affairs commission directly under the control of Wang will not overrule the CPLAC. After all, former State Security Minister and executive deputy director of the office of the National Security Commission Chen Wenqing had just been promoted to Politburo member and Secretary of the CPLAC at the 20th Party Congress. Meanwhile, Wang serves as deputy secretary of the CPLAC and is not a member of the Politburo. Chen also ranks two positions higher than Wang in the Central Committee Secretariat.

It was rumoured that the internal affairs commission would integrate public security, counter-espionage and even social organisation management. Hence, it could be directly responsible for internal affairs work under the "overall national security concept" (总体国家安全观), which includes disaster prevention, mitigation and relief; major public emergency response and management; urban and rural community governance; grassroots conflict resolution; and the advancement of the "sweep away black and eliminate evil" campaign, on top of traditional policing efforts.

Alternatively, Hong Kong media Sing Tao Daily suggested that the reform focuses on the integration of the political and legal systems, and reorganises the National Security Commission, which was established in 2014 and led by Xi himself - the previously obscure national security office would be bolstered and brought to the forefront.

Will this weaken the CPLAC? Some reports said that the possibility cannot be ruled out. Nonetheless, the National Security Commission will be directly led by its chair and the general secretary of the CCP.

Some people are worried that the CCP's vigorous reform of its security system is in fact an expansion of police powers under the banner of security. But this may be a gross simplification of the issue. The CCP's departments and the Chinese government are indeed in need of reform as issues of overstaffing and overlapping or mismatched roles are prevalent.

China now desperately needs to revive its economy after the pandemic, but it also faces external containment from the US and other Western countries, as well as rising geopolitical risks. The 20th Party Congress report and Communique of the Second Plenary Session both stated that the country has entered a period of development in which strategic opportunities, risks and challenges are concurrent, and uncertainties and unforeseen factors are rising. The report also stressed the need to be ready to withstand high winds, choppy waters, and even dangerous storms.

Against this backdrop, the CCP's further integration of the party and the government, and the strengthening of the Central Committee's centralised and unified leadership over science and technology, major affairs, and national security, in fact, exposes the anxiety and insecurity amid the current situation.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as "备受关注的中国安全机构改革".

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