China’s ruling Communist Party has signalled a renewed push for social stability by quietly setting up a high-level party group about a year ahead of its 21st national congress.
The creation of the Leading Group for Social Governance of the party’s Central Committee underscores the growing focus on internal security and grass-roots governance ahead of the next five-yearly congress, expected to be held in autumn 2027.
Beijing has never officially announced the formation of the body, nor disclosed who leads it. However, a trail of local government reports in recent months has offered quiet evidence of the group’s active operations.
The latest hint came on Monday, in an online post from the social works department of Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The city authority said that it had convened a meeting to “convey and study” the spirit of “the fifth plenary meeting of the Central Leading Group for Social Governance” alongside that of its regional counterpart in Inner Mongolia.
The report came in the form of a statement posted to the department’s official social media but appears to have since been taken down.
The statement showed that the high-level social governance group had been active for a while – having recently held its fifth meeting – and that a network of provincial counterparts had also been set up.
In recent months, similar official statements had surfaced across Zhejiang, Henan and Jiangsu provinces, detailing local meetings to study the instructions from the same central leading group and their corresponding provincial bodies.
Those posts are also no longer available online.
In China’s tightly managed top-down party-state hierarchical system, the ruling party often uses “leading groups”, or lingdao xiaozu, as authoritative, cross-ministry steering mechanisms designed to cut through bureaucratic silos and project the priorities of the top leadership. Such groups are usually led by members of the Politburo – China’s top decision-making body.
Since taking the helm of the party in 2012, President Xi Jinping has established and chaired numerous such party groups, each focused on a specific policy area.
Grass-roots governance has gained higher policy priority over the past three years.
In a restructuring plan rolled out in 2023, Beijing announced the creation of a Central Social Work Department directly under the party’s powerful Central Committee, seeking to consolidate its control over all non-public sectors and grass-roots organs.
A key responsibility of the department is to “coordinate and guide” the handling of petitions from the public and the soliciting of public opinion, according to the reform plan.
It is also tasked with leading the work of industry federations, improving the governance of grass-roots communities in urban and rural areas, and setting up party organs in private companies and other social organisations.
A key priority for the group is expanding the party’s reach among China’s around 84 million gig economy workers – including food delivery riders, couriers and ride-hailing drivers – as well as firms behind major internet platforms and tech start-ups.
The department has lately also partnered with the party’s disciplinary watchdog to crack down on misconduct within national trade associations and social organisations, targeting corrupt practices and governance abuses.
A high-level social governance conference held in Beijing last November underscored directives from Xi that hold up social governance as “crucial to the party’s long-term governance and the country’s long-term stability”. Xi’s chief of staff and Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi presided over the conference.
A Guangdong official familiar with related affairs said that provincial deputy party secretaries – whose job it is to assist their party chiefs – were heading their respective regional social governance leading groups.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
