China’s Practices of Civil Servants Supervision and Administration

China’s Practices of Civil Servants Supervision and Administration

Ever since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy some 30 years ago, especially since the beginning of the 21st century, China has been actively promoting reform in public administration and a civil servant administration system with Chinese characteristics has been established on the basis of drawing from useful experience of western countries. Its experience mainly includes:

I Focus on standardized rules and regulations to promote law-based duty fulfillment and scientific administration

China’s civil servant administration system has experienced the development course from theoretical discussion to pragmatic implementation. The implementation of the Civil Servant Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter referred to as Civil Servant Law) on January 1, 2006 marked a new legalization phase of China’s civil servant administration system.

The Civil Servant Law defines the scope and basis of civil servant administration. It is formulated in accordance with the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and actual practices of cadre and personnel system reforms. Civil servants as defined by the Civil Servant Law refer to those who perform public duties according to the law and have been included into the state administrative staffing with wages and welfare borne by the state public finance. The people working in the departments of the Communist Party of China, organs of people’s congresses, administrative offices, departments of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, judicial organizations, procuratorate departments and departments of democratic parties all belong to the category of civil servants.

The Civil Servant Law defines the principles and contents of civil servant administration. The Civil Servant Law stipulates that civil servants administration should follow the principle of openness, equality, competition and selecting the superior ones, should be carried out pursuant to the legal power limits, qualifications, standards and procedures and should adhere to the principle of paying equal attention to supervisory restrictions and incentive guarantees. The Civil Servant Law covers all the links of civil servant recruitment, management and dismissal and every aspect of a civil servant’s public career is provided for in a comprehensive manner including employment, assessment, appointment and dismissal, promotion and demotion, reward, government discipline punishment, training, intercommunication, avoidance, resignation and dismissal, salary, welfare and insurance, retirement, appeal and accusation and appointment.

The Civil Servant Law defines China’s classified system of posts of civil servants as well as the categorization of posts and ranks. The Civil Servant Law establishes the principle of classified administration of civil servants and further improves the categorization of posts and ranks. The posts of civil servants, in light of the nature, features and necessities of administration on civil servant posts, are classified into such categories as comprehensive administrators, technological professionals and administrative law enforcers. The posts of civil servants are divided into leading posts and non-leading posts.

The Civil Servant Law defines the fundamental requirements and intrinsic nature of civil servants administration. Civil servants’ activities of fulfilling duties according to law are under legal protection. The Civil Servant Law not only stipulates the basic principles, basic systems and basic measures of civil servant administration, but also clarifies the rights and obligations of civil servants, the organizations of administration, and related legal liabilities. Through clearly defining the essential aspects of civil servant administration, the Civil Servant Law provides the solid foundation for the administration of civil servants in a scientific and law-biding manner.

II Focus on institutional innovation to prevent illegitimate manipulations of civil servant selection and appointment

The Civil Servant Law has scored much reformative and innovative progress in terms of improving the civil servants administration system and related mechanisms.

The Civil Servant Law establishes the mechanism of succession by providing for the recruitment and dismissal of civil servants. For instance, it stipulates that citizens can become civil servants through public examinations, a constitutional right equally bestowed upon every one. It is also stipulated that all the civil servants should be recruited through examinations, which contributes to the effective prevention of certain malpractices in public servants selection. During the past five years since the implementation of the Civil Servant Law, a total of 11.77 million people have participated in public examinations and 620,000 of them have been selected as civil servants.

The Civil Servant Law establishes the mechanism of competition. It is stipulated that recruitment of beginning public servants must follow the principle of open examination, strict assessment, competition on an equal footing and selection by merits and that candidates to be promoted to a leading position within the same public organ shall be selected through competitive post bidding. For certain post vacancies, candidates may be selected through an open selection from the society. The introduction of the mechanism of competition effectively increases the transparency of public servants selection and prevents varied forms of illegitimate manipulation.

The Civil Servant Law establishes the mechanism of protecting the rights and interests of civil servants. The Civil Servant Law stipulates that civil servants enjoy eight rights including participating in trainings, provides for the system of launching an appeal or accusation, the arbitration system for personnel disputes of contracted civil servants, and the system of salary, welfare and insurance for civil servants, and establishes the four circumstances where civil servants cannot be dismissed. All these reflect the importance that the state attaches to the protection of civil servants’ rights and interests.

The Civil Servant System establishes the mechanism of supervision and restraint by providing for the nine obligations of civil servants including exemplarily abiding by the Constitution and laws, 16 disciplines that civil servants should not violate, and systems of assessment, punishment, dismissal, voluntary resignation and forced resignation, all combined to strengthen institutional supervision over civil servants. The establishment of such systems such as responsibility investigation, resignation and dismissal greatly strengthens the administration and supervision of civil servants.

III Focus on supervisory and restraining measures to promote open and transparent operation of public power and clean governance

In recent years, China has made constant reformative and innovative progress in the supervisory mechanism of civil servants and the promotion of clean governance.

China has established the power restraint and supervisory system. On the principles of reasonable structure, scientific distribution, rigorous procedures and effective restraint, China is gradually establishing a sound power structure and operation mechanism featuring both restraint and coordination among decision-making power, executive power and supervisory power. Now, a supervisory system with Chinese characteristics has been established, composed of intra-Party supervision in the CPC, supervision by the National People’s Congress and the local people’s congresses (NPCs), supervision within the governments, and democratic supervision by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee and local people’s political consultative conferences (CPPCCs), judicial supervision, supervision by the general public and supervision by public opinion. These relatively independent supervision mechanisms collaborate closely with one another to form an integrated force.

Consolidated efforts are devoted to ensuring the proper exercise of public power. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Supervision of Standing Committees of People’s Congresses at All Levels enacted in 2007 strengthened the supervisory role of those committees in the form of law over the administrative, judicial and procuratorial powers of the people’s governments, people’s courts and people’s procuratorates at corresponding levels. Also enacted are the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Administrative Supervision, Audit Law of the People’s Republic of China, Administrative Reconsideration Law of the People’s Republic of China, Administrative Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China to establish the systems of administrative supervision, audit supervision, administrative re-consideration and administrative procedure to strengthen supervision over the administrative organs and their staff.

China has established the system of making public such information as related to the exercise of power. Since the 1980s, the Chinese government has proactively implemented the systems of making public government affairs. The Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Making Public Government Information and some other important statutory documents have been promulgated. The Regulations stipulate that government information, other than that related to state secrets, business secrets and personal privacy, should be made public in a timely and accurate manner, with the requirement of making public as the principle and holding back as the exception, to guarantee the people’s right to know, participate, express and supervise.

China has formulated and strictly implemented the codes of conduct for public servants. China has issued a series of codes of conduct and ethical rules for civil servants including the Guidelines of the Communist Party of China for Party-member Leading Cadres to Perform Official Duties with Integrity which clearly prohibits Party-member leading cadres seeking illegitimate gains by taking advantage of their positions and power in violation of the established rules and the Regulations on Leading Cadres’ Report of Relevant Personal Matters which requires leading cadres to honestly report their incomes, the employment status of their spouses and children, and other related issues. The implementation of such codes of conduct and ethical rules has effectively promoted the standardized and clean performance of official duties by civil servants.