Training successors

Having experienced 80 years of trials and hardships, the CPC now enters a period of the old giving place to the new. This year and next will see the election of new leading Party and government bodies at the provincial level in China. Regarding the matter of successors, which has become increasingly urgent, the CPC Central Committee has already made strategic arrangements and initiated a plan for promoting bright young people.

With China's pending entry into the WTO, the Chinese economy is facing overall integration into the world economy. China will encounter more direct pressure from economic globalization. This situation naturally places new demands on the composition of leadership at various levels in terms of age, education and overall competence. It can be said that the development of the situation calls for the CPC to boldly promote a group of outstanding younger officials who, with both ability and political integrity, can take on the mission of invigorating China in the new century.

As early as January 1995, the CPC Central Committee explicitly set forth objectives and requirements for training and selecting younger officials. A symposium sponsored by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee proposed in mid-April 2000 that a group of outstanding younger officials aged around 50, 40 and 35 be promoted to chief posts in leading bodies at the provincial, city and county levels respectively, and that the number of such officials should be increased significantly in the coming three to five years.

In January this year, 47-year-old Xi Jinping, former deputy secretary of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, was elected governor of Fujian at the Third Session of the Ninth People's Congress of the province. Xi thus became the youngest provincial governor of Fujian since the founding of New China.

One month later, Bo Xilai, deputy secretary of the CPC Liaoning Provincial Committee, was elected governor of Liaoning at the Fourth Session of the province's Ninth People's Congress. This 51-year-old new provincial governor has rich experience in working in grass-roots units as well as a Master's degree.

Also in January this year, the 19th meeting of the 13th People's Congress Standing Committee of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, elected Li Chuncheng as mayor and Hao Kangli as vice-mayor, both holding Master's degrees and less than 45 years of age.

Statistics show that by February this year, leading Party and government bodies in most provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government had been reinforced with a considerable number of younger officials. The number of officials below 45 in leading Party and government bodies at the city (prefecture) level exceeded 1,500, and more than 2,300 officials under the age of 35 held leading posts in Party and government leadership at the county level.

The composition of leadership at various levels has improved in terms of educational attainment. More than 180 of the provincial-level officials appointed last year had received a university education or higher, accounting for 80.8 percent of the total, and more than 650 city-level officials also had attained such a level of education, accounting for 60.9 percent.