A stubborn disease: Government and enterprises mixed up their functions

The year: 1998

Representatives: Ministry of Electrical Power, Ministry of Coal Industry, etc.

Zhu Rongji was elected the premier at the First Session of the 9th National People's Congress in March 1998. Zhu showed great ambition toward initiating a new institutional reform during a group discussion before he was elected.

Nine ministries and commissions were removed or demoted during the fourth cabinet reform. They included the Ministry of Electric Power, Ministry of Coal Industry and Ministry of Chemical Industry.

In addition, the State Planning Commission was renamed the State Development Planning Commission. It exercised the functions of balancing the economy, curbing inflation and optimizing economic structure; the new agency also took charge of improving macro-control systems as well as economic and legal measures.

Restructuring after China's accession into the WTO

The year: 2003

Representative: National Development and Reform Commission

China was admitted into the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2001, as its 143rd member.

"With the country's WTO accession and the deepening of economic restructuring, some links in the government structure failed to conform to the new situation," said Wang Zhongyu, State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council. He subsequently unveiled a government reform plan at the First Session of the 10th National People's Congress in March 2003.

The State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) was restructured into the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in 2003, placing more emphasis on macro controls.

In 2003 the government established the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). Authorized by the State Council, SASAC has guided and pushed forward reforms and restructuring of state-owned enterprises. But the government has stressed that it would not allow the SASAC to manage State assets and thus become the "boss plus mother-in-law" of State companies.

To remove any disparities between domestic and foreign trade, the Ministry of Commerce replaced the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation to take charge of the country's domestic and foreign trade as well as international economic cooperation.

(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, March 11, 2008)