Comparative Study: Leaders of Shanghai and Hubei in the Post-Reform Era

Zihao Wang

GCHN-SHU 240

Prof. Pierre F. Landry

April 17th 2017

Comparative Study: Leaders of Shanghai and Hubei in the Post-Reform Era

This study compares different career trajectories of key individuals in the political leaderships of Shanghai city and Hubei province from 1990 to the present, aiming to identify patterns and principal factors behind the promotion and demotion of political leaders in both regions. The inquiry is structured into three parts. In the first section, in order to crudely understand the general recruitment criteria of the governing positions, the background and qualifications of leaders in Shanghai and Hubei prior to reaching their top positions will be listed and compared. The second part of this paper will feature a comparison between two different patterns of career profiles following these political leaders’ tenures in their respective regions. Finally, in the last section, this study will attempt to give a partial explanation to the divergence of career paths shown in the earlier comparison, including to what extent the chance of promotion is related or not related to one’s performance on his post in either of the two regions.

Before carrying out the three-step-approach introduced above, it is important to clarify where the power lies as well as who the real leaders are at provincial/municipal level. As pointed out by the existing literature on Chinese political structure, the institutions of party and state are closely intertwined throughout the power hierarchy from the central level down to all localities, which by definition, makes China a “communist party-state.”^[1]  In the party-state system, the secretary of the party organization is always the person that holds the biggest power at any level of the administration.^[2] Thus within the provinces/municipalities, though the governors/mayors are the nominal leader of the government, they are always outranked by the party chiefs, who wields greater authority over any of their local colleagues. Since 1990, both Shanghai and Hubei have respectively seen 7 municipal/provincial party secretaries while another 8 held the governor’s office in Hubei compared to Shanghai’s 6 mayors.^[3][4] However, with the knowledge that the party chiefs are always more powerful that the government’s heads in mind, the following comparative analysis will mainly focus on the party secretaries in two regions.

Due to the “age limits for senior cadres”, as introduced by William A. Joseph, an individual will no longer be eligible for being elected as a members of Central Committee after the age of 68.^[5] Hence one’s age at appointment as the provincial party secretary is crucial as it determines the limits of one’s potential promotion. For the last 7 party secretaries in Shanghai, their ages at the years appointment have been relatively consistent, ranging from 51 to 62, with an average of 57.^[6] On the other hand, their counterparts in Hubei have an average age of 58 at the year of the appointments, which hardly presents a noteworthy difference. ^[7]Among each group of secretaries, there are a majority of 6 who had a bachelor degree, one with a master degree prior to taking the top position.^[8] These officials came from a variety of educational backgrounds, including various fields of engineering, architecture, history and economics, etc.^[9] Although ostensibly, a bachelor degree appears to be the minimum educational qualifications for the provincial/municipal leaders in the post-reform era, the specific area of study is shown to be less relevant to the individual’s eligibility for the top position. However, another notable phenomenon is that 4 out of 7 party secretaries of Shanghai over the last 27 years are graduates from the prestigious Tsinghua University, 3 of which even studied the same major, giving possibility of some form of alumni connection helping them securing the position one after another. Among the 7 secretaries of Shanghai, three were promoted from the mayor post, which is in effect the second in command in the municipality; one is promoted from the deputy secretary post, when the secretary at the time was also the mayor; two were transferred from the leadership posts in other provinces; one transferred from the vice-minister post of central bureaucracy. On the other hand, in Hubei, the breakdown previous positions held by the 7 secretaries is similar to that of Shanghai: four promoted from the governor, one transferred from other province, one transferred from central bureaucracy and one promoted from the leadership post of provincial bureaucracy.^[10] To sum up the comparisons presented previously, Shanghai and Hubei do not exhibit any significant difference on their recruitment of party secretaries regarding age, education, or professional background, with the exception that Shanghai have considerably higher proportion of graduates from Tsinghua University. The similarity shown in the comparison can be readily comprehended since both Shanghai and Hubei are on the same level of the administrative pyramid and their top officials are ranked equally in the nation-wide power hierarchy.^[11]   However, the career paths of the officials from the two region will start to diverge in the next comparison.