Chinese who dream of securing a lifetime "iron rice bowl" civil service job might have to think again, as the country mulls expanding a system that could sack civil servants with poor job performances.

Yang Shiqiu, vice head of China's State Administration of Civil Service, told Xinhua Friday the administration would promote this year a system piloted in southern China's Shenzhen city, to classify civil servants into different categories for the sake of differentiated management, and to sack those with poor performances.

Civil servants would be classified into three categories: general management, law enforcement and technical professionals, according to Yang.

"The classification is a key principle of the Civil Servant Law," Yang said, "it could help improve the management of civil servants and encourage them to develop their abilities."

Yang's words came days after Shenzhen city in the southern Province of Guangdong announced its plan to reform its employment system for the city's civil servants.

"We planned to expand the pilot reform to more places across the country this year, ... in order to deepen and perfect the reform," Yang said.

Civil service has long been considered an "iron rice bowl" job in China, a term indicating stable employment and steady incomes. The country registers about five million civil servants, and sees more than one million people applying for government posts every year.

But China has already been considering to replace the "iron rice bowls" with more fragile ones, to turn civil service into an incentive-oriented, performance-driven career option.

On Wednesday, Shenzhen city announced its plan to reform the employment system for the city's civil servants.

According to Wang Min, director of Shenzhen's Human Resources and Social Security Department, nearly 70 percent of its civil servants will be classified under the categories of law enforcement and technical professionals after the reform.

Salaries of civil servants in these two categories would be unhooked from their ranks, but linked to years of service, job performances, and professional skills.

According to Wang, the current civil servant management system in which officials were appointed by their superiors has proven to be inadequate in fostering talents and training promising workers, as only a handful of people could be promoted.

The new system would offer chances for civil servants to improve their abilities and increase their incomes based on job performances and profession skills, he said.

Meanwhile, all new civil servants to be recruited by Shenzhen starting from March this year will no longer enjoy a lifelong employment, but could be fired for poor performances.