At the CCP's Thirteenth National Congress, Zhao Ziyang put forth the principle of "transforming the functions of government organs" in the course of promoting government structural reform. From then on, mainland China's State Council has undergone structural reform three times, in 1988,1993 and 1998 respectively. Each of these three times, the State Council drafted the plan for its own structural reform based on the principles and policies decided at the CCP's National Congress and then submitted the plan to the National People's Congress for ratification. This operational model signifies the continued leadership position of the Party over politics. The work to carry on the government functional transformation and to promote government structural reform continued both in theory and in practice in the CCP's Fourteenth and Fifteenth National Congresses. As far as the State Council's structural reform is concerned, the 1988 reformation attempt should be considered a failure, while efforts in 1993 were too limited in scope to achieve the purpose of transforming government functions. The 1998 reform has been made at a larger scale, although the results have yet to seen.