Civil Service of the People's Republic of China
The Civil Service of the People's Republic of China is the administrative system of the traditional Chinese government which consists of all levels who run the day-to-day affairs in mainland China. The members of the civil service are selected through competitive examination.
.svg.png.webp) |
|---|
| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of China |
|
 China portal |
_cap_insignia.svg.png.webp){kind=small}
As of 2009, China has about 10 million civil servants who are managed under the Civil Service Law.[1] Most civil servants work in government agencies and departments. State leaders and cabinet members, who normally would be considered politicians in political systems with competing political parties and elections, also come under the civil service in China. Civil servants are not necessarily members of the Communist Party, but 95 percent of civil servants in leading positions from division (county) level and above are Party members.[1]
History
A professional corps of dedicate bureaucrats, akin to a modern civil service, has been an integral feature of governance in Chinese civilization for much of its history. Part of the motivation was ideological; Confucian teaching discouraged overly involved, warlike, and rowdy rulers alike, making the delegation of legislative and executive authority particularly necessary.[2] During the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 – 256 BC), records show that kings would send edicts encouraging local officials to identify promising candidates for office in the capital.[3] This practice was intensified under Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141 – 87 BC), who standardized the selection process with the addition of question-and-answer elements on classic texts judged by a panel of scholars.[3] This helped lay the groundwork for the Imperial examination system that would be formed under the short-lived Sui dynasty before being widely adopted thereafter.[4] The examination system and the bureaucracy it engendered would remain in place in some form until the dissolution of the Qing dynasty in 1911.[5]
Mao-era cadres
The People's Republic of China did not initially maintain a formal civil service like other countries of the era.[6] As the Chinese Communist Party gained ground in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang (KMT), it instead used dedicated Party cadres to oversee and administer territories it took over. The Communist Party at the time of its victory in 1949 faced a serious shortage of qualified personnel to the fill over 2.7 million public positions needed to govern the country that had previously been occupied by KMT-affiliated officials, some of whom the Party had to allow to continue to work due to lack of suitable replacements.[7] By the mid-1950s, China had developed a nomenklatura system modeled on the Soviet Union; there was no civil service independent of the ruling party.[8]
Reform
Following the death of Mao Zedong and the rise of reformist Deng Xiaoping, efforts began to change the cadre system after the discord of the Cultural Revolution so that the Party would be able to effectively carry out the modernization of China.[9] Reforms beginning in 1984 did not decrease the approximately 8.1 million cadre positions[10] across China, but began to decentralize their management to authorities at provincial and local levels.[11]
Zhao Ziyang, elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 1987, sought to transform the cadre system into a more independent body resembling a civil service.[12] The civil service not completely subservient to the Communist Party, and thus reform the relationship between the Party and the Chinese state.[13] In the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Zhao and his allies lost their influence among Party elite and the civil service reform project was denounced by remaining leaders.[14] Zhao's proposals were subsequently heavily modified and implemented as the "Provisional Regulations on State Civil Servants" in 1993, albeit on a much less comprehensive scale.[15]
Nevertheless, the Provisional Regulations established the first formal civil service in China since the founding of the People's Republic.[16]
Definition
Civil servants in China are a subset of Communist Party cadres, the class of professional staff who administer and manage Chinese government, party, military, and major business institutions.[17] The definition of the civil service differs from that of many western countries. Most broadly, civil servants are "the managers, administrators and professionals who work for government bodies," including leadership such as the Premier, state councillors, ministers, and provincial governors, among others.[18] It excludes manual workers and many other types of cadre, such as those employed in public service units such as hospitals, universities, or state-owned enterprises, even though those positions are also paid and managed by the government.[18] While not strictly part of the civil service, the judiciary is governed by the same personnel arrangements as the civil service.[19]
Levels and ranking system
The current ranking system has 27 different ranks (from previously of total 15 levels) and a grade (dangci) system within each rank (at most 14 grades for each rank) to reflect seniority and performance; a combination of rank and dangci ultimately determine pay and benefits.[20]
The 27 ranks are sub-divisions of 11 "levels".[21][20] The following is a non-exhaustive list of party and state positions corresponding to their civil service rank. The list only comprises "leadership positions" (lingdao ganbu), but not civil servants who are not in leadership positions. Non-leading civil servants can be given high corresponding ranks. For example, an expert or advisor hired by the government on a long-term initiative does not manage any people or lead any organization, but may still receive a sub-provincial rank. Similarly, retired officials who take on lesser-ranked (usually ceremonial) positions after retirement would generally retain their highest rank. Occasionally, officials may hold a position but be of a higher rank than what the position indicates, for example a Deputy Prefecture-level Party Secretary who holds a full prefecture-level rank.
| Level | Rank | Level name | Party positions | Government positions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 to 3 | National leader (国家级正职) | ||
| 2 | 4 to 6 | Sub-national leader (国家级副职) |
|
|
| 3 | 7 to 8 | Provincial-Ministerial level (省部级正职) |
|
|
| 4 | 9 to 10 | Sub-Provincial (Sub-Ministerial) level (省部级副职) |
|
|
| 5 | 11 to 12 | Bureau-Director level (厅局级正职) |
|
|
| 6 | 13 to 14 | Deputy-Bureau-Director level (厅局级副职) |
|
|
| 7 | 15 to 16 | Division-Head level (县处级正职) |
|
|
| 8 | 17 to 18 | Deputy-Division-Head level (县处级副职) |
|
|
| 9 | 19 to 20 | Section-Head level (乡科级正职) |
|
|
| 10 | 21 to 22 | Deputy-Section-Head level (乡科级副职) |
|
|
| 11 | 23 to 24 | Section member (科员) |
|
|
| N/A | 25 to 27 | Ordinary Staff |
|
|
State Administration of Civil Service
The State Administration of Civil Service was created in March 2008 by the National People's Congress. It is under the management of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, which resulted from the merger of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The function of the administration covers management, recruitment, assessment, training, rewards, supervision and other aspects related to civil service affairs. The administration also has several new functions. These include drawing up regulations on the trial periods of newly enrolled personnel, further protecting the legal rights of civil servants and having the responsibility of the registration of civil servants under central departments. Its establishment was part of the government's reshuffle in 2008. It aimed at a "super ministry" system to streamline government department functions.
Salary and allowances
There are three main components of civil service pay according to the 2006 pay regulation by the State Council of the People's Republic of China, namely base pay (基本工资), cost-of-living allowances (津补贴), and bonus (奖金).[22]
See also
References
- "China's Civil Service Reform: An Update" (PDF). East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
- Keay, John (2009). China: A History. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02518-3. p. 128
- Keay 2009, p. 129.
- Keay 2009, pp. 227-28.
- David Castrillon, "The abolition of the imperial examination system and the Xinhai revolution of 1911." Asia Pacificio, (2012) Online(2012).
- Lee, Hong Yung (1990). From Revolutionary Cadres to Party Technocrats in Socialist China. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520303072. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
- Lee 1990, p. 48: "Despite the heavy reliance on military personnel, the CCP encountered a keen shortage of qualified personnel to fill 2.7 million positions when the People's Republic of China was founded. The problem was particularly serious at the local level."
- Burns, John P. (September–October 1987). "Reforming China's Bureaucracy, 1979-82" (PDF). Problems of Communism. 36 (5): 36–51.
- Burns 1987, p. 37.
- Burns 1987, p. 46.
- Burns 1987, p. 38.
- Lam, Tao-chiu; Chan, Hon S. (August 1996). "Reforming China's Cadre Management System: Two Views of a Civil Service". Asian Survey. 36 (8): 772–786. doi:10.2307/2645438. JSTOR 2645438.
- Lam & Chan 1996, pp. 772-73.
- Lam & Chan 1996, p. 777.
- Lam & Chan 1996, pp. 780-781.
- Chan, Hon S.; Li, Edward Suizhou (2007). "Civil Service Law in the People's Republic of China: A Return to Cadre Personnel Management". Public Administration Review. 67 (3): 383–398. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2007.00722.x. ISSN 0033-3352. JSTOR 4624581.
- Burns, John P. (2007). "Civil Service Reform in China" (PDF). OECD Journal of Budgeting. 7 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1787/budget-v7-art3-en., p. 22.
- Burns 2007, p. 3.
- Burns 2007, p. 5.
- "China's Attempt to Professionalize Its Civil Service" (PDF). East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
- "中国正部级干部有多少？正部 副部级待遇揭秘". danjian.cn. Archived from the original on 2015-02-10.
- Wu, Alfred M. (2014). Governing civil service pay in China (1st ed.). Retrieved January 23, 2015.
Further reading
- Governance in China (2005), By OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - 574 pages
- China's civil service reform and local government performance : a principal-agent perspective (2006)
- Civil Service Reform in China, 1993-2001: A Case of Implementation Failure