China Briefing | In China, Soviet-era ‘rank’ system is crippling reform
In a holdover from the central planning model, everything gets ranked for their ‘importance’. Some leading figures say it’s keeping the nation back
Chinese officials enjoy being called “the people’s public servants”, but they waste no time pulling rank on the people or peers below them.
This has given rise to a popular saying that translates as “officials one rank higher can crush their subordinates”, illustrating the culture of the Mandarin system in which officials pursue their ranks above all else and only look up to their superiors.
Over the past 30-odd years of reforms and opening up, the mainland has expunged much of the Soviet-style central planning in a tremendous shift towards a market economy. But the complicated and rigid Stalinist bureaucratic rank mechanism has lived on and long become one of the biggest stumbling blocks towards further reforms.
Such a system has not only created lethargic government bureaucracy but also permeated almost all levels of social and cultural institutions. From primary schools to universities, from state-owned companies to hospitals, from sports bodies to cultural dance troupes to even temples where monks are supposed to be free of earthly pursuits, institutions – along with their managers – are assigned ranks equivalent to those in the bureaucracy, according to their size and influence and links with the government.
The official ranks will determine the levels of funding, salaries, medical and retirement benefits, access to housing and cars, and even seating arrangements at meetings and banquets.
As a result, they are run just like government bureaucracies with their managers focusing more on accommodating the directives from their superiors.