BEIJING: China is readying with sweeping changes to its vast bureaucracy as president Xi Jinping strengthens Communist Party control and seeks to boost his country’s technological and financial prowess at a time of heightened rivalry with the US.

Central-government agencies would cut their head count by 5% across the board.

The development comes on the backdrop of Jinping’s sweeping push to make the economy more self-sufficient and resilient in the face of US efforts to prevent Beijing from obtaining advanced technology.

The new strategy revealed to lawmakers indicated that the communist regime would create new regulatory bodies to oversee broad segments of China’s financial system, as well as the use of data and related digital technologies.

State institutions such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, would be restructured or have some of their powers redistributed to other departments.

The new plan seeks to strengthen oversight of its $60 trillion financial system.

The objective is to “better allocate resources to overcome challenges in key and core technologies, and move faster toward greater self-reliance in science and technology, Xinhua News Agency said.