China To Cut 4 Million Jobs

China plans to eliminate 4 million jobs from government payrolls as part of a far-reaching reform to pare the bloated bureaucracy, an official newspaper said Friday.

Word of the reduction came a day after Communist Party leaders approved a government streamlining plan to be presented at the national legislature's annual session, which opened Thursday.

No details of the plan were released. But Chinese officials and foreign diplomats estimate that up to 21 ministries and ministry-level commissions will be merged, eliminated or spun off into holding companies.

The moves are intended to reduce waste, rid the government of the vestiges of central planning and better suit the capitalist-style market economy.

Wang Dongjin, a senior official at the pro-reform State Commission for Economic Restructuring, told a recent government meeting that about half the 8 million official party and government jobs would be eliminated in the next three years, the China Economic Times reported.

The state payroll covers 33 million people, including 25 million researchers, medical workers and the like, the newspaper said.

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