Shandong recently announced new measures for evaluating the “political qualities” of newly hired civil servants, explicitly listing political standards as an important criterion for civil service recruitment. The official document mentions that key individuals’ public statements on social media platforms will be checked by departments such as internet supervision and public security. Interviewees have said that this is a new “political review” aspect that was not present before; netizens believe that the increasing control is a sign of the Chinese Communist Party’s downfall.
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has been continuously raising the requirements for “political qualification” in civil service recruitment, expanding the assessment scope to individuals’ expressions on social media platforms. A report on the Chinese Communist Party’s organization and personnel website recently stated that Shandong Province has been steadily advancing the evaluation of political qualities of newly recruited civil servants in recent years and incorporating related requirements into the recruitment process. The local government has introduced the “Shandong Provincial Civil Servant Recruitment Inspection Measures (Trial)” which clearly states that political standards are an important threshold for civil service recruitment.
A legal scholar in Shandong, Mr. Li, mentioned in an interview with reporters, “Now it’s not just about one’s resume and achievements, but also about what you say in your daily life, how you express yourself online, which topics you have liked, all of this will be scrutinized.”
Mr. Li further explained to the reporters that the so-called evaluation of political qualities is not just focused on one aspect, but runs throughout the entire recruitment process. He stressed, “The emphasis now is on whether one can pass the political evaluation, and this standard is becoming more detailed and concrete.” In his view, individuals’ public and online expressions, including whether they have been censored or banned, are all being observed.
Another interviewee, Zhao Zhicheng, told reporters that the extensive coverage of Shandong’s related measures by media outlets under the Central Organization Department has brought attention to the increasing importance of “political qualification” and online expressions in civil service recruitment. He remarked, “In the past, when taking civil service exams, the main focus was on education, experience, and test scores, there was no such meticulous political scrutiny like now.” He recalled that when he applied years ago, “Nobody would go through what you said online.”
Many analysts believe that the Communist Party tends to tighten control in various aspects when it feels its regime is unstable. Some netizens sarcastically commented that “speaking nonsense with eyes wide open is the basic skill to pass the review?” They also speculated that this indicates the imminent collapse of the communist party regime. Some internet users believe that this is a resurgence of the “lingering influence of Mao” seen in past movements, with Xi Jinping trying to reverse, indicating that the downfall of the regime is not far off.
According to official disclosures, Shandong has outlined 24 positive scenarios and 35 negative ones as a comparison standard in the civil service recruitment evaluation. The relevant departments have also proposed methods like entering the workplace, communities, residential areas, and homes to understand the performance of the examinees in and out of the “8-hour environment.” The official document specifically states that this is done to contrast the behavior of the examinees in real life and the online space, to see if there are differences between their public and private personas, online and offline.
A retired personnel management professional in Qingdao, Mr. Qi, told reporters that ten years ago, civil service recruitment in Shandong and many other provinces mainly relied on written exam scores, qualification reviews, and relatively simple political interviews. He mentioned, “Back then, the political review mainly looked at the file and organizational assessment, online expressions were not within the formal evaluation scope.” He added that the interviews back then were “more about discussing resumes, to see if the candidate was suitable for the position.”
Mr. Qi noted that compared to the past, the current evaluation content has significantly increased, “Now it’s not just about work performance, many details of life and things said in the past are also being observed.”
As Shandong further refines the evaluation of political qualities and incorporates it into the entire civil service recruitment process, the related system has shifted from primarily written assessments and procedural checks to comprehensive evaluations covering real-life and online spaces. Several interviewees pointed out that this adjustment is redefining the recruitment threshold for civil servants and whether this approach will be extended to other provinces in the future remains to be seen.