A knack with handling social issues could be the ticket for up and coming officials.

With a new round of personnel reshuffling that began in mid-October, observers have noted that opportunities are opening up for officials with social administration skills.

"Economic growth should go hand in hand with social stability," said Zhu Lijia, a professor of political studies with the Chinese Academy of Governance. "Officials who can do well in both local economic growth and social stability will get promoted."

The Communist Party of China (CPC) started its reshuffling of provincial committees in Northeast China's Liaoning province and it will be completed in all other provincial-level governments in the following months.

Shanxi, Jiangxi and Henan provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will also select their new Party committee by the end of this month.

The reshuffle will lay the basis for next year's 18th national congress of the CPC.

Mao Shoulong, director of the administrative management department at Renmin University of China, said that officials who failed to deal with social issues would be more likely to be vetoed in the personnel reshuffle.

"After the high-speed railway train accident in Wenzhou, which ignited public anger, it's getting more difficult for railway officials to be promoted," Mao said.

The reshuffle of provincial officials and governors has sped up since August, with a change of Party secretaries in Hebei, Hainan, Yunnan provinces and the Tibet autonomous region, and provincial governors in Fujian, Hebei, Hainan, Zhejiang, Yunnan and Jiangxi provinces.

Educational background is also likely to play an important role in the promotion of officials, Zhu said, pointing out that all six newly appointed provincial governors have master's degrees.

To ensure fairness of the reshuffle, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC and the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee will oversee the process.

The public should also get access to supervise the reshuffle given that most Party officials are also government officials, Zhu said.

The CPC started its personnel reshuffle in four administrative levels - township, county, city and province - earlier this year, involving Party leaders from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

More than 40 of the 202 incumbent members of the 17th CPC Central Committee entitled in 2007 will reach the retirement age of 65 in 2012, which will lead to a reshuffle during the 18th national congress of the CPC next year, according to Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao newspaper.

The number of CPC members exceeded 80.2 million by the end of 2010, with nearly 3.9 million Party organizations at the grassroots level, according to the Organization Department of the CPC.