Functions and significance of the central leading group for comprehensively deepening reforms and the central comprehensively deepening reforms commission

ABSTRACT This study examines the function and meaning of Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms (CDR Leading Group) and Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission (CDR Commission), created in the Xi Jinping administration, and discusses on their roles in policy making. This paper positions the CDR Leading Group and the CDR Commission as policy adjustment vehicles, analyzes them in terms of policy integration and administrative coordination, and examines whether they were created for organizational or policy purposes. Another perspective is how government agency coordination existing before the Xi Jinping administration changed. This study reveals the following. First, the CDR Group and the CDR Commission are organizations aimed at tackling new issues. Their activities demonstrate the leadership of Xi Jinping, who is at the top, and significantly contribute to establishing his own authority and strengthening his power base. Second, both the CDR Group and the CDR Commission have a multi-layered organizational structure, with the offices of the main body, special groups, and their offices playing a substantive role. In the economic field, for example, there is no change to the conventional coordination led by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance. Third, these are merely “ad hoc” mechanisms for advancing comprehensively deepening reforms that were the decision of the third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee.