"Two Sessions" refers to the assemble meetings of NPC (National People's Congress) that is China’s top legislature and the highest organ of state power, and CPPCC (The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) that is a patriotic united front organization of the Chinese people, serving as a key mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and a major manifestation of socialist democracy which consists of representatives of the CPC and non-Communist parties.
Under the new leadership of President Xi, Two Sessions approved the revision of the Constitution, change in governmental agencies, etc. Governments at the ministerial level under the State Council have 26 sectors that will play various role in the state governmental system.
It remains a part of existing departments, and merges some sectors to set up the new ones.
The official platform released the updated list of governmental agencies yesterday. All new sectors are in bold below:
1.中华人民共和国外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2.中华人民共和国国防部 Ministry of National Defense
3.中华人民共和国国家发展和改革委员会 National Development and Reform Commission
4.中华人民共和国教育部 Ministry of Education
5.中华人民共和国科学技术部 Ministry of Science and Technology
6.中华人民共和国工业和信息化部 Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
7.中华人民共和国国家民族事务委员会 State Ethnic Affairs Commission
8.中华人民共和国公安部 Ministry of Public Security
9.中华人民共和国国家安全部 Ministry of State Security
10.中华人民共和国民政部 Ministry of Civil Affairs
11.中华人民共和国司法部 Ministry of Justice
12.中华人民共和国财政部 Ministry of Finance
13.中华人民共和国人力资源和社会保障部 Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security
14.中华人民共和国自然资源部 Ministry of Natural Resources
15.中华人民共和国生态环境部 Ministry of Ecological Environment
16.中华人民共和国住房和城乡建设部 Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development
17.中华人民共和国交通运输部 Ministry of Transport
18.中华人民共和国水利部 Ministry of Water Resources
19.中华人民共和国农业农村部 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
20.中华人民共和国商务部 Ministry of Commerce
21.中华人民共和国文化和旅游部 Ministry of Culture and Tourism
22.中华人民共和国国家卫生健康委员会 National Health Commission
23.中华人民共和国退役军人事务部 Ministry of Veterans Affairs
24.中华人民共和国应急管理部 Ministry of Emergency Management
25.中国人民银行 People's Bank of China
26.中华人民共和国审计署 National Audit Office
Ministry of Water Resources (#18), Ministry of Ecological Environment (#15) and Ministry of Natural Resources (#14) are the critical departments that involve in the natural resources governance and play diverse functions. Together with all sectors and organizations at the global, regional and national levels, they will ‘champion the development of a community with a shared future for humanity, and has encouraged the evolution of the global governance system’, as stated in the Two Sessions’ report.
*As planned, Two Sessions will come to a close on 20 March 2018.