A big step forward

In addition to the once-every-five-year routine of leadership reshuffle, as well as general discourse about the national status quo, the 2008 session of the National People's Congress (NPC) took an impressive step toward upgrading government administration.

Unlike many past experiments starting at local levels and with limited scopes, this one begins from the State Council, the cabinet. That the scalpel of reform has been first applied to the very top of the country's administrative pyramid belies a broad awareness of an acute need for change in the manner State affairs are managed. The leading Communist Party's recent ideal to deliver "good governance" is difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill with a governance philosophy and subsequent government layout that is increasingly out of sync with the new conditions.

The regrouping of major powers among ministries and commissions is a logical outcome of new understanding of the roles and functions of the government. The rearrangements, such as establishment of the independent national energy headquarters and upgrade of the national environmental watchdog into a full-fledged ministry, not only answered to a number of imperative needs, but also inaugurated a new round of reforms in the governance structure.