CENTRAL NATIONAL SECURITY COMMISSION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

The article discusses the rationale for, and progress made to actual date, of creating the Central National Security Commission of the Communist Party of China, from when it was first announced in November 2013. The paper highlights the development and reasons for creating the Commission. The main impulses for establishment of the Commission are to help better coordinate a fragmented Communist Party of China bureaucracy and to speed up president Xi Jinping’s drive for consolidation of his personal power over the internal and external coercive and diplomatic tools of the governing structure. The creation of the Commission is a work in progress and its full institutional maturation will take a certain period. It is still an open question as to whether this institutional attempt to achieve coordination of the foreign and security policy areas around of president´s authority will improve, or further complicate, China’s long-standing coordination problem, and help to solve some current internal and external security policy challenges. Beyond the president Xi Jinping´s steps it is difficult to discern an authoritative voice. His political progress in the consolidation of foreign and security policy, however, is remarkable and very dynamic. The Commission’s focus looks to be mainly oriented to internal and periphery security, but it is also the People's Republic of China response to new global and transnational issues.

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