OpinionIn party network, 'lowly' secretary jobs highly prized
The role of personal assistant might be scoffed at elsewhere, but in mainland politics it means access to power and almost certain promotion
The job of a secretary, though essential to any organisation, is often thankless and unglamorous - the person must type and take dictation, man telephones and e-mails, create files and keep diaries.
But in the mainland's massive bureaucracy machine and the Communist Party's political parlance, the term has taken on a wholly different dimension, one that denotes power and mystique.
In the traditional sense of the job, acting as secretary for a senior official is one of the most coveted jobs for a civil servant. The role can allow the person to be at the heart of the decision-making process, access the most privileged information, wield considerable influence on behalf of the master they serve, build up powerful connections, and open the possibility of a fast-track promotion for themselves.
There is good reason why secretaries serving senior officials are widely known as "No. 2" among civil servants. Many of the mainland's top leaders and high-ranking officials were once secretaries themselves.
Even Xi Jinping early in his career served as a personal secretary to Geng Biao, the minister of defence from 1979 to 1982, right after graduating from university. As secretaries, they may remain faceless and anonymous to the public but they are the ones lower-ranking officials would be first to ingratiate themselves with if they valued their career and intended to get a go-ahead on any job.
The more senior the leader a secretary serves, the higher the rank he can receive. Usually, the principal secretaries to top leaders carry the rank of a deputy government minister.