-->
The Department of the Communist Party of China Organization
Department is the central authority for the development and promotion of executive. It directly reports to the Central
Committee and holds a full minister-level
rank.
It is one of the most important organs of the CPC. It is a secretive and
highly trusted agency and forms the institutional heart of the party system. It
controls the more than 70 million party personnel assignments throughout the
national system, and compiles detailed and confidential reports on future potential
leaders of the Party. Because the People's Republic of China is a one-party
state, the Organization Department has an enormous amount of control over
personnel within the PRC. The Organization Department is indispensable to the
CPC's power, and the key to its hold over personnel throughout every level of
government and industry. It is one of the key agencies of the Central
Committee, along with the Central Propaganda Department and International
Liaison Department.
The CPC uses the nomenklatura method ("list of
names" in Soviet terminology) to determine appointments. The nomenklatura
system is how the ruling party staffs the apparat, exercising organizational
hegemony over appointments and dominating the political life of the country.
The central nomenklatura list comprises the top 5,000
positions, all of which are controlled by the Organization Department. This
includes all ministerial and vice-ministerial positions, provincial
governorships and First Party secretary appointments, as well as appointments
of university chancellors, presidents of the Academy of Science and Academy of
Social Sciences, etc.
Related to the nomenklatura list is the bianzhi list, which
is a list of the authorized number of personnel, as well as their duties and
functions in government administrative organs, state enterprises, and service
organizations. The bianzhi covers those employed in these organizations,
whereas the nomenklatura applies to leadership positions. However, because the
Party and its organizational departments are constantly intervening in the
personnel and administrative functioning of state institutions, the parallel
existence of the bianzhi and nomenklatura systems has become an obstacle to
fundamental administrative reform in China.
An equivalent of the Organization Department in the United
States, according to the Times, would "oversee the appointments of US
state governors and their deputies; the mayors of big cities; heads of federal
regulatory agencies; the chief executives of General Electric, ExxonMobil,
Walmart and 50-odd of the remaining largest companies; justices on the Supreme
Court; the editors of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The
Washington Post, the bosses of the television networks and cable stations, the
presidents of Yale and Harvard and other big universities and the heads of
think-tanks such as the Brookings Institution and the Heritage
Foundation."
Bruce Gilley and Andrew Nathan write that in the promotion
of individual candidates for high positions, a good rating from the
Organization Department is essential. The Department judges on such qualities
as "ideological probity, loyalty to the Party, attitude toward work, and
ability to mobilize others." Its research on individuals slated for top
positions are "probing" and assessments often acute.
In recent years, the party's Organization Department
introduced an evaluation procedure for leading officials (the cadre
responsibility system) that aimed to assess regularly the officials'
performance and success at implementing policies. Shambaugh also notes the
promulgation of Regulations on the Selection and Appointment of Party and
Government Leading Cadres in July 2002, writing that the Organization
Department has stepped up its evaluation of cadres, including annual appraisal
reviews according to various criteria. However, research conducted by Thomas
Heberer in China in 2007 revealed that an effective evaluation procedure is not
yet in place. Crucial policy areas, such as environmental issues, are not being
evaluated, and evaluation is predominantly based on self-assessment.
The nomenklatura system is also facing grave challenges due
to the development of the market economy and private entrepreneurship in China.
Because Chinese citizens can now achieve upward mobility and the acquisition of
resources outside the Party's control, the CPC is no longer the sole
stakeholder. This development entails a challenge to the power monopoly of the
CPC.
Senior Party leaders often carry influence in the
determination of key positions. The children of Li Peng, for example, came to
hold powerful jobs in the power sector where he had ruled; while Zhu Rongji
oversaw the finance sector, his son became the highly paid head of China
International Capital Corporation, the country's largest investment bank; and
Jiang Zemin putting loyalists into top jobs, and his son into a key position.
The buying and selling of official positions also takes
place, particularly in small localities, where head of the local Organization
Department is among the most sought-after positions. The job carries great
discretionary power, allowing the wielder the ability to grant jobs to other
individuals in return for cash. The practice is characterized by bribery,
corruption, treachery, and "sheer desperate self-interest," according
to documents produced by the Organization Department in Jilin Province.
Internal Party documents give frank assessments of the
Organization Department's strategy to enhance its control. Before the 16th
Party Congress, a set of Temporary Regulations were amended to encourage the
appointment of cadres. The Organization
Department is now headed by Chen Xi in 2017.
Conclusion:
The State Organization Department has not received sufficient attention when evaluating the currents growth prospects for China. It is our position that the development of "human capital" at the leadership levels is always the key ingredient when evaluating the growth potential of any nation. In the case of China was find that so far we have witnessed one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive institutions for managing the development of executive cadres.
The current practice has roots that can be traced in the past for eight centuries of the selection of the China civil service. It is this history that confirms out view that China may be on the threshold of a major transformation of its progress towards a new civilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment
For comments please e-mail paul@strassmann.com