Chinese Civil Servants

Just who are the Chinese civil servants?

In an article titled Managing China's Civil Servants by Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard (Interpreting China's Development, Ed. Wang Gungwu and John Wong, World Scientific Publishing, 2007), there are 64 million Chinese on the public payroll.

But only 6.37 million of these can be categorised as civil servants.

According to the Civil Servant Law which took effect in 2006, all public servants should be recruited through just, open and fair examinations. Officials should also take the blame and quit their posts "if their mistakes or negligence cause major losses or serious social repercussions." They are also required to stay out of cases involving their relatives.

"Civil servants are normally considered as cadres, but not all cadres are civil servants. In fact there are 42 million cadres in China, and only those working in administrative state organs are civil servants. This means that public employees working in shiye danwei (事业单位) such as schools, hospitals, cultural institutions, social service, etc cannot be regarded as civil servants," Brodsgaard wrote.

Civil servants are not necessarily party members. However, it is difficult to go any further than the level of division head (chuzhang，处长) without a party membership.

"It is almost impossible to be appointed to the "real leadership position" without being a party member, although there are an increasing number of non-party members in vice positions."