China unveils 'revolutionary' plan to give Communist Party even more power

China unveiled a “revolutionary” government restructuring plan that consolidates Communist Party authority, giving President Xi Jinping more direct control over the levers of money and power.
 
The plan put before China’s rubber-stamp parliament Tuesday —some of which had been reported by Bloomberg — calls for giving the People’s Bank of China greater oversight in the $43 trillion banking and insurance industry and merging regulators that oversee the sector. The plan’s goal was “strengthening the Communist Party’s overall leadership” of the state, the document said.
 
The moves would further centralize power in the nation of 1.4 billion people. The emphasis on party control represents China’s most decisive shift yet from 1980s reforms spearheaded by Deng Xiaoping aimed at professionalizing the government after Mao Zedong’s disruptive party-led political movements caused famine and bloodshed.