Currently, China has over six million public servants. Competitive promotion and open selection have been an important means widely adopted in the promotion of public servants. 60 percent of those advanced to leading posts were selected in this way, said Zhang Bolin, Chinese minister of personnel at a forum on China's reform in Beijing on July 13

Zhang said that remarkable achievements have been made in China's public servant system after more than ten years of efforts. The mechanism of selecting public servants through examination has been basically established. Central authorities and administrations at provincial level or below organize examinations for the recruitment of public servants annually, and conduct written examinations, interviews, assessment and inspection for the examinees. Over 100,000 public servants are employed each year.

Public servants can leave their posts with not much obstacle. From 1996 to the end of 2003, over 16,000 public servants were dismissed and more than 30,000 resigned.

By People's Daily Online