Week-5

CHINESE LAW AND GOVERNMENT 2016, VOL. 48, NO. 5, 325–329 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00094609.2016.1223502

INTRODUCTION

Introduction to the Open Selection and Promotion System and the Documents Wei Hu

School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

Cadre selection plays a very important role in China’s civil service system. On one hand, for civil servants, promotion is considered to be highly motivating; on the other hand, the government is able to implement its strategies by selecting qualified leading cadres. Therefore, China’s cadre system has undergone continuous reforms, and the open selection and promotion system is arguably China’s most significant move since opening to the outside world.

Because there is no difference between political and administrative officials in China, about 7.2 million civil servants are distributed from national to local areas in the People’s Congress, the People’s Political Consultative Conferences, Party Committees, and the governments. Promotion means advancement of one’s position within the four sets of China’s political system. From the revolutionary years to 1978, cadres in China have always been chosen and promoted primarily through two different methods: election and appointment. Except for a few top-level officials to be elected, the majority of the cadres are appointed by upper- level supervisors—a system inherited from the military tradition. While the appointment system has played a tremendous role in history, its drawbacks started to emerge after the consolidation of communist power in China. These drawbacks include the influence of idiosyncratic individual preferences of leaders, obstruction of democratic processes, pre- vention of selection of the best talents, and interference with the integrity of cadre selection,.

Deng Xiaoping, China’s reform champion in 1978, seriously criticized the appointment system. He said, “the cadre management system for the party and the state is problematic; the main problems include bureaucratic red tape, power overly centralized, a paternalistic system, and a cadre tenure system” (Xiaoping). In terms of how the cadres should be managed, Deng suggested four requirements for cadres. They should be loyal to the revolution, relatively young, extremely knowledge, and have expertise in a specialized area. In his speech, Deng pointed out that the key to reforming the older cadre management system was the elimination of lifelong tenure in the cadre system and the selection of talented individuals to fill the vacancies. These ideas helped initiate the open selection system reform, which has continued to the present.

Actually, in practice, it is the Public Utilities Company (state-owned company) that started to recruit managers, deputy managers, and technical personnel by advertising on open media (e.g., in newspapers) in October 1980. This advertisement caused a significant stir at the time. Although the open selection of cadres was not yet an accepted protocol at the time, the practice set a precedent for many to follow. In the following years, many places around the country started experimenting with open selection of cadres, and

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gradually tried to institutionalize the practice. Many newly issued laws, regulations, and executive orders started to appear. Against this background, open selection and promotion started in Henan province.

Henan province, the birthplace of Chinese civilization with over 3,000 years of recorded history, is located in the central part of the country and is China’s third most populous province with more than 94 million people. For a long time, Henan province followed the Central Party Organization Department’s “Regulations on Party/Government Leading Cadre Selection and Appointment” to appoint its cadres. But when Henan province advanced the goal of leapfrogging in economic and social development, the Province’s Party Committee and Government Office came to the consensus that the key to realizing this strategic goal is in its cadres. Therefore, the most critical task became the selection and use of the best cadres. From the literature review on related Chinese journal, we can see that Henan province tried to use open recruitment in the government as early as 1987. After a few local trials, such as in Linzhou city, Huixian city, and Jia county, Henan province launched a relatively larger scale of the open selection of deputies at the department level. The following compilation of materials introduces the relevant provisions and regulations that allow us to examine the reasons that Henan province has chosen open selection, what its procedures are, and how cadres are scientifically selected in Henan province.

Why Henan province adopted the open selection and promotion mechanism

To carry out the Decision of the Fourth Plenary Session of the Fourteenth Party Congress Central Committee of the CPC and the “Implementation Opinions of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee on Carrying Out the ‘Decision of the CPC Central Committee of the CPC on Several Major Issues and a Number of Important Matters for Strengthening Party Construction,’” and to promote reform of the appointment system for leading party and government cadres, the Provincial Committee has, in connection with the reform of provincial-level institutions and adjustments to some deputy level and departmental leading groups, consented to adopt the method of combining exams with evaluations in conducting a pilot project for open recruitment of cadres for deputy at the department level for some units directly under the provincial government. In other words, the existing system of cadre selection was clearly unable to help identify new cadres to meet the chal- lenges of the new strategies. Therefore, they planned to actively expand the prospects and channels for proper selection of personnel, to introduce a mechanism for stimulating com- petition, and to create the environment and conditions for discovering talented persons.

The preparations for open selection and promotion

The documents reveal that Henan province has made meticulous preparations. 1. Building the team. A special team, Office of the Guiding Group for Open Selection and

Promotion in Henan Province has been set up; it is in charge of issuing circulars, drafting and announcing different kinds of plans, organizing examinations, and imposing discipline.

2. Clearing the guiding ideology. The open selection and promotion system should be guided by Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s theory of building up a socialism with Chinese

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characteristics. It should adhere to the principle of possessing both political integrity and vocational competence and appointing cadres on their merits, adhere to the principle of acknowledgment by the masses and focusing on performance, adhere to the principle of openness, equality, competition, and selection of the best. By expanding perspectives and channels for more qualified candidates, the open selection and promotion system, strictly according to the procedures for recruiting cadres, could select and bring into leadership positions the finest young and middle-aged cadres who are loyal the Party’s endeavors, support the Party’s basic line, have a strong awareness of Reform and Opening Up and a spirit of innovation and have true skills and genuine knowledge and outstanding achievements. Thus, it could provide guarantees for accelerating the province’s development and for comprehensively implementing the strategy of opening up to the outside.

3. Developing an implementation plan. The work is to be conducted in six stages: preparation, publicity and mobilization, application and qualification examinations, written exams, interview, final evaluations and appointments.

4. Observing the disciplinary measures. Secrecy is maintained for candidates on the part of devisers of test questions, invigilators, and evaluation work.

How cadres are scientifically selected

After multiple discussions, Henan province designs and organizes a new system for its selection and promotion of cadres. The method of recruiting leading cadres by means of exams combined with evaluations represents a major reform for the cadre recruitment and appointment system.

Organizing efficient selection and promotion

To allow the broad masses of cadres and people to fully understand the significance of the open selection and promotion of leading cadres and to actively participate in this reform, the Organization Department of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee (hereafter, OD, Henan Party Committee) holds a mobilization meeting. All qualified individuals are encouraged to participate in the selection, regardless of their organiza- tional and regional affiliation. Individuals can be nominated by their working unit, the general public, or individuals. This method greatly enlarges the candidate pool and enables diversity. As a result, by February 15, 1995, up to 995 persons recommended by organizations, by the masses, and through self-recommendation have applied province-wide; and between February 16 and February 20, the Office has conscientiously carried out unified examinations of their qualifications in accordance with the appli- cation requirements, and 924 persons have complied with those requirements. Among these, 357 are younger than forty and 567 are between forty-one and forty-five years old; 896 have college or junior college levels of education, and 28 have masters’ degrees or are postgraduates. They are from prefectures, cities, and counties, respectively. Some are from organs under the provincial government or enterprises, others are from colleges and universities or government institutions. Thus a good foundation is laid for selectively recruiting leading cadres.

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Meticulous organization of written exams

To determine successful experience gained inside and outside the province, it was decided to devise two sets of exam topics—on general knowledge and on specialized knowledge— and a plan was made for preparing exam questions. The OD, Henan Party Committee selected eighteen persons with high vocational qualities and conducted a fully closed method of devising questions. The contents of the exams consist of general knowledge and specialized knowledge (two sets on general knowledge and two sets each on seven kinds of specialized knowledge). General knowledge tests are designed mainly to test the examinees’ knowledge in areas such as basic Marxist-Leninist theory, current politics, leadership science, law, and literature and history. The specialized knowledge exams test administrative and vocational knowledge in which an examinee should be proficient as a prospective deputy at the department level. On March 5, written exams were held with close to 800 examinees in attendance. By means of the written exams, 73 persons in a ratio of around 10:1 to the prospective number of candidates (7) were selected from high to low based on the scores they achieved (3 persons obtained parallel scores) for attendance at the oral exams.

Proper organization of interviews

Interviews are held mainly to test the examinees’ abilities in terms of comprehensive analysis, decision making, logical thought, language competence, and improvised responses. The content of interviews is closely connected with reality and has three parts: general subjects, specialized subjects, and case analyses. Each examinee shall reply to three questions. The reply time for each question shall not exceed thirty minutes per person.

A total of seventy-three comrades take part in the oral exams. This number is based on the results of the written exams of the previous phase, in the ratio of about 10:1 of the pro- spective candidates and aligned from high to low according to the scores they achieved. For each specialization, ten persons are in principle chosen from each specialization, but three extra persons are aligned due to parallel tenth place in score in a few specializations. The test questions are set by teams of question devisers consisting of leading cadres, relevant experts and scholars, and vocational mainstay elements, and the questions are created in other locations in completely closed conditions in accordance with secrecy measures exercised for devising questions similar to those used for college entrance exams. The sealed-up test questions are brought to the auditioning venues by special persons and unsealed then and there. To enhance supervision over these oral exams, the testing com- mittee invites specific comrades from the Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission and the Supervision Department to conduct on-site supervision of each session.

Conscientious conduct of organizational evaluations

Prior to the evaluations, the Party Committee’s OD will define the key points of the eva- luations, namely, placing the focus of evaluations on the individuals’ political attributes, leadership abilities, masses acknowledgment, work performance as well as honesty and dili- gence in governance. It requires evaluators to adhere to principles, be fair and upright, true to facts, self-disciplined, and meticulous in all matters. After that, a plan for evaluation

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work is studied and formulated. About twenty-eight cadres are selected from the relevant units to form seven evaluation teams, each team with an department-level deputy cadre serving as chief evaluator, and a system of responsibility for evaluations is established. In-depth and meticulous evaluations are conducted to determine the integrity and capabili- ties of the those being evaluated through means and channels such as personal interviews, public opinion polls, democratic recommendations, and consultation of relevant materials.

Decisions on appointments

Based on the results of written tests and oral exams and organizational evaluations, the thirty-six persons who reach the evaluations stage are subjected to comprehensive analysis and repeated comparisons; the best of them are chosen as possible candidates. Upon consultation with and decisions of the Provincial Committee’s Standing Committee, seven cadres are chosen. From the many talented persons who emerge and undergo organiza- tional evaluation at this time, a deputy director is chosen to reinforce the Provincial Bureau of Pricing. The common characteristics shared by these eight comrades are: having good political and vocational qualities, being in the prime of life, having a fairly solid basis in specialized and theoretical knowledge, having a strong awareness of Reform and Opening Up and a spirit of practicality and innovation, good mass relations, and outstanding work achievements. To promote their readiness to work in any post, high or low, a one- year probation period is to be implemented for these newly selected cadres.

A Summary of the experiences of Henan province’s open selection practice

Open selection represents an effort to combine selection and testing methods to ensure the proper identification of cadres for promotion. The method requires the Party Committee or its designated Organizing Department to announce vacancies to the entire society, encourage self- or nominated registration for the test, take the test, then be evaluated in a comprehensive manner by the party organization in charge of promotion. This innovation in cadre selection is a breakthrough that changes traditional cadre selection and promotion methods that have focused only on a few party-identified candidates for promotion. This method enlarges the pool for selection, widens the vision of the selection process, chooses more professional and competent candidates, and allows for openness, fairness, scientificness, and competitiveness.

This work has had an excellent outcome in Henan province. As a major reform of the cadre recruitment and appointment system, open selection and promotion have been proved in practice as a good way to recruit cadres.

Reference

Xiaoping, D. (1994). Selected works of Deng Xiaoping (Vol. 2, pp. 327). People’s Publishing House.

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