Supervise SOE heads

IT HAS LONG BEEN CONTROVERSIAL FOR the top executives of State-owned enterprises to receive annual incomes of millions of yuan while still enjoying privileges identical to ranking officials. Reform of the salaries and privileges for these executives, which was discussed on Monday at a meeting of the central leading group on deepening reforms, will hopefully change this.

Party leader Xi Jinping, also head of the leading group, said the incomes for such executives will be reasonably regulated. He urged that SOE executives should have a strong sense of responsibility and a sense of devotion, since they shoulder the missions of running State-owned enterprises well and developing the State economy.

The message is that the average income of SOE executives will probably decrease and they will not have as much power as they are used to over the money of the enterprises they are in charge of.