(Bloomberg) -- President Xi Jinping overhauled China’s bureaucracy as part of a sweeping push to make the economy more self-sufficient and resilient in the face of US efforts to prevent Beijing from obtaining advanced technology.

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The plan released Tuesday strengthened oversight of its $60 trillion financial system, created a new agency to manage data and restructured the Ministry of Science and Technology. 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,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.

China will also cut the number of positions in central government departments by 5% and redistribute them in strategically important areas, according to the document released at the annual National People’s Congress legislative session. It didn’t release the total number of employees affected, a sensitive topic in China.

The drive comes as the US increasingly uses export controls, sanctions and other punitive measures to prevent China from obtaining technology that could give it an economic and military advantage, particularly in semiconductors and artificial intelligence. China is also facing a host of domestic economic challenges, with Premier Li Keqiang this week highlighting local government debts and woes in the property sector as key threats to financial stability.

Xi has made building a more efficient government one of the hallmarks of his decade in power. The percentage of jobs cut is the most since 1998, when the central government and state-owned enterprises were reorganized.

The downsizing plan sparked discussion on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform, with some users wondering if the widely coveted public servant positions were no longer considered “iron bowls” that would ensure long-term job security. Others welcome the move, saying that local government agencies should follow suit.