Presentation by Xinhui Jiang, Genia Kostka, Sarah Eaton

Xi Jinping’s ambition to restructure the personnel of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and tighten control over subnational cadres is no longer a secret. That said, whether or not his organizational reforms are effective remains understudied. Towards addressing this oversight, this research examines the career background of prefectural leaders who served between 1999 and 2020 in 31 provincial jurisdictions, including both mayors and party secretaries. Specifically, this study compares prefectural leaders’ demographic information, and vertical, horizontal, and regional mobility patterns. The authors find that both mayors and party secretaries’ term of tenure shortens greatly since 2013, and both need to move across more government departments before serving the position. In addition, the analysis also reveals different patterns between the appointment of mayor and party secretary. While mayors’ appointment is becoming more “down to earth,” with more mayors promoted directly from the county level and more with prefectural working background, party secretaries’ appointment is getting more centralized, with the number of party secretaries with provincial working experience doubled and more party secretaries getting rotated across the provincial border. This finding presents the “division of labor” between the appointment of mayor and party secretary, showing that the mayor is expected to perform while the party secretary is sent down to control and monitor.

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