Bloomberg News on February 7, 2018 reported that China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was being overhauled with more authority being given to Ambassadors on matters regarding personnel deployment and budgets. The plan calls for most agencies to stop replacing staff in Chinese embassies by next year, giving Ambassadors direct control over their portfolios. The Foreign Ministry is to wield a veto over financial and personnel decisions at embassies. China has 5000 diplomats.  Gao Zhikai, a former Beijing-based diplomat who served as Deng Xiaoping’s translator in the 1980s, said “Different embassy departments have operated under different ministries. Not only do they not talk to each other, their focus is also completely different.” He said China needed an empowered foreign service as its diplomatic, commercial and security issues have “become inseparable.” Bloomberg said the overhaul will spare some non-Foreign Ministry embassy staff. The People’s Bank of China will still send representatives abroad and the People’s Liberation Army will also retain close control of their envoys.

(Comment: Currently Ministries, like Commerce, exercise direct control over their personnel. As China's interests expand and it undertakes more global projects, China's foreign affairs budget has risen. It budgeted 54 billion yuan ($8.5 billion) for foreign affairs last year, almost double that of  2013.)