The Communist Party announced plans to tighten oversight of the nearly 200 state-owned enterprises directly under its authority, the news coming in a circular published in the People's Daily. The circular said Party leadership should not be questioned, signaling to analysts a Hu Jintao-inspired departure from the looser supervisory role the Party had been playing recently. A Beijing academic quoted in the South China Morning Post said, "You could argue that the new mechanism can streamline the bureaucracy in state companies, but on the other hand, it can really bring about an absolute corruption of absolute power."