Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

What it is

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is a department of the State Council, set up in March 2008 to carry out administration in three connected areas: industry, communications and informatisation ^[1]. As a department of the State Council, it belongs to the central government structure rather than to a province or to another ministry ^[3].

The pairing in its name is a fair description of its remit. Industry and informatisation are handled inside one department, which is what makes the ministry unusual compared with the bodies it replaced ^[1].

Where it came from

The ministry was set up under the State Council institutional reform plan approved at the first session of the 11th National People's Congress ^[3]. It did not start from nothing: it took over work that had been scattered across several organisations. Industrial administration duties came from the National Development and Reform Commission; most duties of the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence came across as well; and the duties of the former Ministry of Information Industry and of the State Council Informatisation Office were also transferred to the new ministry ^[3].

In other words, the ministry was built by gathering industrial policy work, defence-related science and technology industry work, and communications and informatisation work into a single department ^[3].

Getting started

The new ministry did not begin operating all at once. It unveiled its nameplate on 29 June 2008, at a point when its internal build-out was still being completed ^[2]. The formal statement of how the ministry is organised came a little later: on 11 July 2008 the General Office of the State Council issued the rules setting out the ministry's main responsibilities, its internal bodies and its staffing ^[3].

What it does

Its responsibilities cover a broad span of industrial and information work ^[1]:

• drafting and implementing industrial plans, policies and standards;
• monitoring how industry is operating;
• promoting major technical equipment and independent innovation;
• administering the communications industry;
• guiding informatisation;
• coordinating information security.

The first two items are classic industrial-ministry tasks — setting the rules for industry and keeping watch on how it is running. The third concerns large equipment and domestic technological capability. The last three carry the "information" half of the ministry's name: communications regulation, the broader drive toward informatisation, and the coordination of information security ^[1].

Bodies it administers

The ministry administers two other administrations: the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration ^[2].

Its place in the government

The ministry's creation marks a reorganisation rather than an expansion of government. Functions that had been distributed among a commission, a defence-industry body, a ministry and an office were brought together under one roof ^[3]. Because industrial policy and information and communications work now sat in the same department, questions about manufacturing, networks and information security could be handled within a single administrative structure ^[1].

The sequence of its first months — a nameplate unveiled in June 2008 while internal construction continued, followed by formal rules on responsibilities, internal bodies and staffing in July 2008 — also says something about how such reorganisations happen: the new body appears publicly before its internal shape is fully settled ^[2][3].