BEIJING (AP) — China's plan to create a new security committee demonstrates President Xi Jinping's success in cementing his authority as Communist Party leader, analysts said Wednesday.
Chinese academics for decades have advocated a body to oversee coordination among police, intelligence, military and other security organs, which have sometimes appeared out of step with each other or with the party's civilian leadership despite their emphasis on discipline and unity.
The 2011 test flight of a Chinese fighter jet hours before the U.S. defense chief met with China's leader raised questions over whether security and civilian branches were in sync, as did the slow response to massive riots in the restive west in 2009.
Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin tried in the 1990s to establish such a coordinating agency, experts say, but his effort failed due to resistance from the military and factions within the leadership that did not want to cede power.
But Xi has succeeded where Jiang failed, said Liu Shanying, a political scientist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"The fact is that Jiang had not yet been able to establish his power and status to the extent that was needed to set up the committee at the time," Liu said. "One cannot set up the committee and coordinate the resources unless he has established and consolidated his power already."