Millions of university graduates registered for the 2007
National Examination for Civil Servants attracted by handsome
housing subsidies, medical allowances and stable working conditions
typically offered by government positions. Only two days after
applications were opened to the public on October 14, the
registration website broke down due to the high volume of
traffic.
According to the Ministry of Personnel, there are 12,000
vacancies in 89 central government institutions this year. When
online applications closed on October 24, more than 60,000
candidates had applied for two posts in the personnel department of
the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). But
official statistics on the total number of applicants have not yet
been released.
Introduced in 1994 as one of the measures adopted by the central
government to improve administrative reform, the national
examination for civil servants has always been popular. In 2004, a
total of 780,000 applicants competed for 8,000 positions, and in
2005, about one million applicants applied for 10,000
positions.
"The enthusiasm for civil service careers reflects the
cut-throat competition in China's tight job market," said Xue
Huifang, deputy director of the Department of Public Administration
Research of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science.
A report by the National Development and Reform Commission on
April 27 showed that China faces serious challenges this year
because three out of five university graduates are expected to join
the ranks of the unemployed. Graduate numbers will increase by 22
percent this year to reach 4.13 million but the job market can only
take on 1.66 million new graduates. Many of those who graduated in
2005 are still looking for work.
"It is hard to create new jobs in large numbers because of
surplus production capacity, trade frictions and the revaluation of
the yuan. As a result, it is not going to be easy to deal with
employment pressures", said Zhang Xiaojian, Vice Minister of Labor
and Social Security.
Based on the principles of "transparency, fairness, competition
and merit", the examination system for civil servants "has been
successful in providing a good opportunity for university graduates
regardless of their household registration and family background,"
said Zhang Bailin, Minister of Personnel.
The hugely popular SARFT post sets no special conditions
concerning the applicant's university major, political background,
household registration or previous working experience.
A large pool of candidates is certainly good news for
recruiters. "It is encouraging to see that some of the nation's
most promising young talents want to make a career in government
offices. This will enhance the overall quality of China's civil
servants and improve government efficiency," said Zhang.
However, a public service vocation does not seem to be the main
reason for the current popularity of government jobs, according to
a survey conducted by China Youth Daily and Tengxun.com of
17,330 job applicants.
The survey revealed that 83.3 percent of candidates listed
handsome housing subsidies, medical benefits and stable working
conditions as key attractions of a civil service career. Another
55.8 percent confessed that they hoped to gain fringe benefits from
government jobs.
"I was told by my schoolmate that his boss, who is a senior
official in a central government institution, drives an Audi sedan
provided by the government," said Allan Zhang, 28, who is preparing
for the examination on November 25.
"Although the salary for his grade is only 1,700 yuan (US$213),
he gets a 1,200 yuan (US$125) mobile phone allowance, and another
2,600 yuan (US$325) in housing subsidies every month. As for 'gray
income' like gifts and coupons, you just name it," Zhang said. He
quit his job as a software engineer in a Beijing-based
multinational company last year.
He said that government officials have a lot of power. "When you
become a senior official, you no longer need to carefully observe
others' faces. Everything becomes easy because others can take care
of it for you," he said.
Consequently, power-base institutions are the most popular with
examinees. More than 5,000 applied for the five positions in the
General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China (CPC). By contrast, government recruiters in areas like
meteorology, seismology and cartography have failed to attract
enough candidates. Some posts in grassroots units or departments in
remote areas like western Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region also received
scant attention from applicants.
"Everyone has the right to pursue benefits, but it is sad to see
so many young talents acting cynically in a demanding job market,
flocking to government offices to escape the insecurities of life,"
said Liu Xirui, professor at the National School of
Administration.
"What is even more worrying is that these potential future
decision makers can scarcely be said to have a clear concept of
public service or healthy motives for civil servant positions," he
said.
He noted that the responsibility of government officials is to
serve the people instead of being served by the people. The
government should be organized for the people and government
officials should exercise power on behalf of the people.
"A high quality civil servant must have a broad vision, a good
understanding of state policies, and a desire to serve the people,
especially disadvantaged groups," Liu said. "The greater the power,
the greater the responsibility."
Professor Yu An from the School of Public Administration of
Tsinghua University believes that students' ideas about civil
servants reflect their experience.
"Within the government, there is a disparity between the power
that officials have and the responsibilities they have to
shoulder," he said, adding that there is a lack of effective
supervision of the power wielded by officials.
An annual report by the National Audit Office shows that
government departments lost 2.2 billion yuan (US$275 million) in
2005 through corruption, inefficient taxation collection and bad
land management. About 685 million yuan (US$86 million) was lost to
embezzlers who fabricated expenditure or concealed and absconded
with revenues. Lax tax collection, a euphemism for turning a blind
eye to taxes owed in return for under-the-table favors, cost the
government another 830 million yuan (US$104 million).
Yu said the "fever" for government positions also indicates, to
some extent, a lack of trust in the stability of the social welfare
system. Almost 90 percent of the rural population has no health
insurance and nearly 60 percent of city dwellers are not covered by
health insurance, according to the Ministry of Health.
"Social security is a key factor in social harmony," Yu
added.
Last Wednesday, China published the Resolution on Major Issues
Regarding the Building of a Harmonious Socialist Society, which was
adopted at the conclusion of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on October
11.
"We are stepping up efforts to improve the rule of law, develop
a culture of clean and honest government, and strengthen the checks
and supervision on power," said Chinese President Hu Jintao.
He exhorted government officials "to improve their
self-discipline and resist materialism, hedonism and
individualism."
The recent dismissal of the former secretary of the Shanghai
Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China as well as Qiu
Xiaohua, former head of China's National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS), for their involvement in the 10 billion yuan (US$1.25
billion) social security fund scandal, illustrates the
determination of central government to stamp out corruption and
build a clean and efficient government.
China punished 67,505 government officials for corruption from
January 2003 to August 2006, according to the latest judicial
figures released on October 23. According to the procuratorate's
statistics, more than 17,505 corrupt officials were prosecuted and
punished in the first eight months of this year.
"University students should realize that a government job can
never be a 'golden bowl'. The 'bowl' is given by the people and
will be broken if responsibility is ignored," Liu Xirui
stressed.
(China Features October 30, 2006)