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How does China pick top officials? Beijing mouthpiece sheds new light on secretive standards
- Criteria include being 68 or younger and spending more than five years in ministerial or provincial leadership roles, according to Xinhua
- However, the rules allow for flexibility, and recent promotion of Foreign Minister Qin Gang is among the exceptions
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Vanessa Caiin Shanghai
A lengthy article published on Monday by state news agency Xinhua has shed new light on the criteria Beijing uses to select its top government officials, with political loyalty as the most important trait.
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It was a rare disclosure about the standards, including age and rank, for nominating and elevating top officials for the State Council, the National People’s Congress, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Central Military Commission.
The article said new nominees should be born after January 1955 in a bid to “actively and steadily construct the leadership team”. This age limit requires officials to be 68 or younger, though the criteria could be relaxed for some officials, including those from Hong Kong and Macau and ethnic minority groups, according to Xinhua.
It said promotions would be given to those who have served in leading positions at the provincial or ministerial level for more than five years, with flexibility granted to those who would be able to serve two consecutive terms.
The article came after the closing ceremony of the National People’s Congress on Monday. Over the past week, the national legislature endorsed appointments for top government jobs, including the premier and a handful of key ministers, in a major personnel reshuffle that completed a twice-a-decade leadership transition.
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Xi Jinping stresses party leadership as parliament draws to close
Xi Jinping stresses party leadership as parliament draws to close
Xinhua said the newly nominated were key officials from various sectors who had a good record of clean politics, including women, officials from ethnic minority groups and officials who were not members of the Communist Party.
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