Foreign diplomats briefed on China’s key meeting
- By Zhang Lulu
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 20, 2013
The briefing also took questions from foreign diplomats after the introduction segment.
Liu Shijin, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, explained the difference between the Central Leading Group on Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC). While the Central Leading Group will oversee the implementation of the overall reform, the NDRC mainly focuses on China's macro-economy. "The NDRC itself will undergo some reforms, including the streamlining of its approval and examination system," Liu added.
As to the much discussed creation of a national security committee, Yuan Shuhong, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, explained it will address both internal and external security challenges. The responsibilities of the committee will fall into four categories, as President Xi Jinping clarified last Friday: study national security strategies, establish a legal framework for safeguarding national security, formulate policies related to national security and discuss major issues of national security. Whether it will be a coordinating body or a decision-making organization, or a combination of both, remains to be seen.
On the question of the "reeducation through labor" system put forward by Irene Giner-Reichl, Austrian ambassador to China, Deputy Director Yuan explained that the system has already been put to a halt and no one is newly affected by it. Yet, China still has to go through legal procedures to completely abolish the system which still relies on laws issued in 1957 and the 1970s, as well as on regulations from the Ministry of Public Security. As for the people who currently fall under the system, Yuan stated, "They are not criminals and not subject to criminal code, and they will receive help to return to society."
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