China warns of brain drain at Ministry of Commerce
(Baonghean.vn) - The Chinese Communist Party has instructed the Ministry of Commerce to prevent the "immigration" of key officials, in the context of the country being embroiled in a trade war with the United States.
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| The Chinese Communist Party has instructed the Ministry of Commerce to prevent the “migration” of key officials. Photo: AP |
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Communist Party’s discipline watchdog, issued the directive late last month after three months of monitoring the Ministry of Commerce. In a statement released in late July, the CCDI said the brain drain at the Ministry of Commerce was a “prominent” problem.
A retired trade official said the ministry’s lack of veteran staff, especially those with experience in trade negotiations and macroeconomic management, could affect the quality of advice to decision makers in the trade war.The official said the Commerce Department has become less powerful than before, with top leaders making decisions in the trade war, but the department still plays a big role in making policy proposals.
“The Commerce Department provides policy advice and recommendations. The advice needs to be accurate and valuable. However, the department is lacking in expertise, which is why some retired officials or former trade officials still have influence,” he said, adding that the US side is led by lawyers with extensive experience in trade negotiations.
China Economic Weekly reported that 152 Ministry of Commerce employees retired between 2008 and 2017. The period with the highest number of retirements was from 2014 to 2016 when 80 officials left their positions, 40% of them at the management level.
Eight employees left last year, a peak period that coincided with a sweeping anti-corruption campaign by the Chinese Communist Party.
It is the first time the CCDI has acknowledged the brain drain since the Communist Party launched a new round of disciplinary oversight this year. Many sources say the Commerce Ministry’s bigger problem is the need to obey party orders rather than come up with policy options.
Meanwhile, an American business consultant said the CCDI's assessment was an "indirect attack" on the way the Ministry of Commerce responded to the trade war, and that it was "not necessarily a complaint about a shortage of quality officials"./.
