China's lawmakers met on March 12 to hear an explanation of a government reshuffle plan that involves the establishment of five "super ministries" and a ministerial-level energy commission.

Hua Jianmin, state councilor who explained the reshuffle plan to the national legislators, said that China would create a state energy bureau, which will be under the jurisdiction of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

China plans to form a ministry of industry and information to integrate relevant functions of the NDRC, the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council Informatization Office.

The planned restructuring will also include a consolidated ministry of transport, which will replace the current Ministry of Communications and the General Administration of Civil Aviation. Under the new ministry will be a new state civil aviation bureau as well as the State Post Bureau.

The reshuffle includes the establishment of a ministry of human resources and social security, which will combine the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. A state bureau of civil servants will be formed under the new ministry.

The plan also includes the elevation of the State Environmental Protection Administration to the ministry of environmental protection. A new ministry for housing and urban-rural construction will replace the Ministry of Construction.

The State Food and Drug Administration will be put under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, to clarify the health ministry's responsibility for food and drug safety.

The reshuffle involves 15 government departments and reduces the number of Cabinet ministries and commissions to 27 from the current 28, Hua said.

Terrorist Attack Foiled

China foiled a planned attack on a passenger plane taking off from Urumqi, capital of the northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an official said on March 9.

The China Southern Airlines aircraft took off at 10:35 a.m. and landed in Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu Province at 12:40 p.m. on March 7, before reaching its destination Beijing, because "some people were attempting to create an air disaster," said Nur Bekri, Chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, on the sidelines of the annual session of the 11th National People's Congress.

The attackers were stopped in time, and all the passengers and crew members on board are safe, he told reporters.

According to the Beijing-based newspaper Global Times published on March 11, one person with information about the incident said a 19-year-old Uygur woman smuggled two containers of gasoline onto the flight. She allegedly took the containers into the bathroom and tried to light the gasoline, but was stopped by members of the flight crew.

The crew and air police reported the incident to the control tower, and landed in Lanzhou under the instruction of the tower, said an aviation official on condition of anonymity.

The suspects are currently in custody in Lanzhou, an official with the Xinjiang regional government said.

Nur Bekri said that the authorities are currently investigating "who the attackers are, where they are from and what their background is." He added, "We can be sure that this was a case of intending to create an air crash."

Meanwhile, the region's Party chief Wang Lequan said the terrorists killed and captured this January in Urumqi had planned an attack targeting the Beijing Olympic Games.

The group was said to have collaborated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group the United Nations labeled terrorist organization in 2002.

Wang vowed to adopt a strike-first policy against the "three evil forces" of terrorists, separatists and extremists, saying "we are prepared to strike whenever their conspiracies are detected".