Institutional Reform Plan Increases Party’s Role in Governance

Key Takeaways

• The bodies overseeing financial, social, science and technology, and Hong Kong and Macao work have shifted to direct party control.
• Some of the new party bodies oversee areas that are driving frictions with the United States, such as China’s military-civil fusion and technology self-reliance initiatives, efforts to play an increasing role in Hong Kong’s affairs, and ambitions to increase party control of private companies.
• These changes could pose challenges for government affairs work in China if the government regulators companies typically engage with now have less decisionmaking authority.