Chinanews, Beijing, Feb. 16 – A lot of cadres born in the 1960s now take leading positions at various levels of Communist Party and government departments, fulfilling the wish of Deng Xiaoping, chief designer of China’s reform and opening-up, who once proposed that young people should form the main part of Party and government leaders. The overall quality of these young cadres has improved and the management structure has been streamlined, according to an article in the People’s Daily forum.
When China kicked off reshuffle work at various levels of the governments, the central government requires that the newly-elected officials should include at least three who are below the age of 50 and one who is below the age of 45. In addition, the central government sets guidelines for the age of officials serving in their positions. According to these guidelines, the Party secretary and the vice Party secretary of a province should be below 65 years old, the secretary of the discipline inspection committee should be below 63 years old, and the rest of cadres should be below 60 years old. The nominees of these three types of officials should not be more than 63, 61, and 58 years old, respectively.
Some provinces have completed their Party reshuffle under these guidelines, where the newly-elected Party officials are divided into three tiers according to their age groups. They include not only people now in their 60s (born in the 1940s), but also people in their 50s (born in the 1950s) and those in their 40s (born in the 1960s). So the new-elected Party cadres include both senior, middle-aged, and young people.
According to statistics gathered by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, there are 14 provinces that completed their Party reshuffle work last year, and among all these 14 provinces, there are 56 cadress who are below the age of 50 and some 21 new officials who are around the age of 45. Most notably, a group of young cadres born in the 1960s have joined decision-making group at provincial level. There are, to name a few, Hu Chunhua, first secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China; Sun Zhengcai, Party secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture; and Zhou Qiang, acting governor of Hunan Province.
In addition, many young cadres born in the 1960s have also assumed leading posts at various levels of governments in the reshuffle work held in cities, counties, and villages.
