How does China pick top officials? Beijing mouthpiece sheds new light on secretive standards

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.

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.

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.