Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:04:45.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Politics and Policy in Post-Mao Cadre Retirement*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Melanie Manion
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Personnel changes in the party and government in communist systems are typically politicized and personalistic. Changes occur as the result of natural death, political error or consolidation of personal power from the top. Cadres able to manoeuver around the vagaries of politics enjoy de facto lifelong tenure. In 1978, the experience in the People's Republic of China (PRC) was no different in that regard: lifelong tenure, barring political error, had existed since the consolidation of power in the 1950s. Purge had been the dominant form of exit from office in the PRC. And because purge had not meant physical liquidation in the Chinese case, veteran revolutionaries had survived and reappeared to dominate the Party and government bureaucracies for decades.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 129 , March 1992 , pp. 1 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. See Barnett, A. Doak, Cadres, Bureaucracy, and Political Power in Communist China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; Oksenberg, Michel, “The institutionalisation of the Chinese communist revolution: the ladder of success on the eve of the Cultural Revolution,” The China Quarterly, No. 36 (1968), pp. 61–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Teiwes, Frederick C., Politics and Purges in China: Rectification and the Decline of Party Norms, 1950–1965 (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1979)Google Scholar; Vogel, Ezra, “From revolutionary to semi-bureaucrat: the ‘regularization’ of cadres,” The China Quarterly, No. 29 (1967), pp. 36–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Oksenberg, Michel, “The exit pattern in Chinese politics and its implications,” The China Quarterly, No. 67 (1976), pp. 501–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhi bu lao ganbu ju laodong renshi bu lao ganbu fuwuju (eds.), Lao ganbu gongzuo wenjian xuanbian (selected Documents on Veteran Cadre Work) (hereafter Gongzuo wenjian), Vols. 1 and 2 (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhi bu lao ganbu ju laodong renshi bu lao ganbu fuwuju, 1983 and 1986).Google Scholar Those volumes are classified for internal distribution (neibu); below I cite alternative public sources for specific documents if I know of them.

4. “Renzhen jiejue gongzuo mianlin de xin keti” (“Conscientiously resolve new problems faced in work”), Hongqi (Red Flag), 1980, No. 16, p. 2.Google Scholar

5. See especially “On the reform of the system of Party and state leadership,” Beijing Review, Vol. 26, Nos. 40 and 41 (1983), pp. 14–22 and 18–22. Deng gave this talk in August 1980.Google Scholar

6. “Some views of the Central Committee's Organization Department on strengthening veteran cadre work,” 29 12 1978, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 80–88.Google Scholar

7. Zhonggong Hunan sheng wei zuzhi bu, “Zhengque shixing lao zhong qing san jiehe de yuanze” (“Correctly implement the principle of the three-in-one combination of old, middle-aged and young”), Hongqi, 1978, No. 6, pp. 46–50.Google Scholar

8. 19 February 1978, p. 1.

9. Baowei, Huang, “Lao ganbu xuanba zhong qingnian ganbu zhong de lishi zeren” (“Veteran cadres' historic duty in selecting young and middle-aged cadres”), Lilun yu shijian (Theory and Practice), 1981, No. 8, pp. 32–33.Google Scholar

10. State Council, Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, 111, and Disabled Cadres, 2 June 1978, in Laodong renshi bu zhengce yanjiu shi (ed.), Zhonghua renmin gongheguo laodong fagui xuanbian, 1985 (selected 1985 Labour Laws and Regulations in the PRC) (Beijing: Laodong renshi chubanshe, 1986), pp. 332–36.Google Scholar

11. Renmin ribao, 3 06 1981, p. 2.Google Scholar

12. Zhaohua, Wang, “Guanyu ganbu ‘sihua’ he ganbu zhidu gaige de ji ge wend” (“Issues in the ‘four transformations’ of cadres and reform of the cadre system”), in Laodong renshi bu ganbu jiaoyu ju (ed.), Laodong gongze renshi zhidu gaige de yanjiu yu tantao (Research and Inquiry on Reform of the Labour, Wages and Personnel Systems) (Beijing: Laodong renshi chubanshe, 1985), pp. 104–128Google Scholar; Chen Yeping, “Baozheng dang de shiye jiwang kailai de zhongda juece: xuexi Deng Xiaoping wenxuan zhong guanyu xin lao ganbu hezuo jiaoti sixiang de tihui” (“Important decision to guarantee the Party's cause is carried forward: insights from studying views on co-operation between new and veteran cadres and on the transfer of duties as presented in Deng Xiaoping's selected works”), Hongqi, 1983, No. 16, pp. 2–6.Google Scholar

13. Many complaints were aired in newspapers and journals from 1980. See, for example, Commentator, Renmin ribao, 29 10 1980, p. 1Google Scholar; Special Commentator, “Lao ganbu de yi xiang zhongda zhengzhi zeren” (“A major political responsibility of veteran cadres”), Hongqi, 1980, No. 19, pp. 2–5.Google Scholar

14. Communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 29 February 1980, Beijing Review, Vol. 23, No. 10 (1980), pp. 7–10.Google Scholar

15. See Jiaqi, Yan, “Lun feizhi ‘zhongshenzhi’” (“On eliminating the lifelong tenure system”), Xin shiqi, (New Era) 1980, No. 3, pp. 5–7Google Scholar, and excerpt in Renmin ribao, 12 06 1980, p. 5Google Scholar; Fang, Gao, “Feichu ganbu zhiwu zhongshenzhi de weida yiyi” (“The great significance of eliminating the cadre lifelong tenure system”), Renwen zazhi (Humanities) 1980, No. 4, pp. 10–15Google Scholar; Guangming, Xiao et al. , “Lun feichu ganbu lingdao zhiwu zhongshenzhi” (“On eliminating the lifelong tenure system for leading cadre positions”), Jiangxi daxue xuebao (Jiangxi University Bulletin), 1980, No. 4, pp. 20–28Google Scholar; Xiangfu, Peng and Zhongbin, Zheng, “Shi tan feizhi ganbu zhiwu zhongshenzhi” (“On eleminating the cadre lifelong tenure system”), Lilun yu shijian, 1980, No. 5, pp. 8–11Google Scholar, and excerpt in Renmin ribao, 3 06 1980, p. 5Google Scholar; Special Commentator, Renmin ribao, 28 10 1980, p. 5Google Scholar; and excerpt in Beijing Review, Vol. 23, No. 46 (1980), pp. 20–23Google Scholar; Liping, Wu, “Ganbu zhidu shang yi xiang zhongda de gaige” (“A major reform of the cadre system), Hongqi, 1980, No. 11, pp. 6–10Google Scholar; Jirui, Bao, “Tantan zhongshenzhi wenti” (“On the question of lifelong tenure”), Guizhou shehui kexue (Guizhou Social Sciences), 1981, No. 1, pp. 29–34Google Scholar; Kang, Wen, “Ganbu zhidu de yi xiang genben xing gaige: tantan feizhi zhongshenzhi de wenti” (“A fundamental reform of the cadre system: on the question of eliminating the lifelong tenure system”), Qunzhong (Masses) 1981, No. 5, pp. 8–11.Google Scholar In 1984 Yan Jiaqi elaborated his critique in Zhongshenzhi yu xianrenzhi (The lifelong tenure system and the limited term system) (Shenyang: Liaoning renmin chubanshe, 1984).Google Scholar

16. Xiao, et al. , “Lun feichu ganbu lingdao zhiwu zhongshenzhi,” p. 28.Google Scholar

17. See Barnett, , Cadres, Bureaucracy, and Political PowerGoogle Scholar, Vogel, , “From revolutionary to semi-bureaucrat.”Google Scholar

18. For accounts that shed light on changing incentives for participation in the communists' rise to power see: Bianco, Lucien, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915–1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1971)Google Scholar; Johnson, Chalmers A., Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power: The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1937–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962)Google Scholar; Kataoka, Tetsuya, Resistance and Revolution in China: The Communists and the Second United Front (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Van Slyke, Lyman P., Enemies and Friends: The United Front in Chinese Communist History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967).Google Scholar

19. “Selecting young cadres for leading posts,” Beijing Review, Vol. 24, No. 31 (1981) p. 3.Google Scholar

20. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Foreign Demographic Analysis Division, Administrative and Technical Manpower in the People's Republic of China, International Population Reports Series P-95, No. 72 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973), p. 37.Google Scholar

21. Special retirement status was considered “unsuitable for workers” (as were advisory and honorary positions). For this reason, policy-makers reverted to the pre-1958 practice of separate retirement systems for cadres and workers. Zhi, Cao (ed.), Zhonghua renmin gongheguo renshi zhidu gaiyao (Fundamentals of the Personnel System of the PRC) (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1985), p. 381.Google Scholar Special retirement status was granted to workers only if they had been cadres under Party leadership during the revolution and if years worked as cadres exceeded years worked as workers. Thus, in effect, special retirement status was extended to workers only on the basis of cadre credentials. See “Gongren keyi lixiu ma?” (“Can workers specially retire?”), Zhongguo laonian (Chinese Elderly), 1985, No. 10, p. 17.Google Scholar

22. Eligibility was restricted by bureaucratic rank to those at and above the county level. Those ranks include many ordinary cadres, but advisory and honorary positions (unlike special retirement status) were only for cadres in positions of leadership.

23. Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, Ill, and Disabled Cadres.

24. Central Committee and State Council, Decision to Establish Advisers, 13 August 1980, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 14–16.Google Scholar

25. Before 1980 policy did not provide for advisers to Party committees or Party departments. Advisers in the Party bureaucracy were introduced in the Decision to Establish Advisers. Even before 1980, however, it seems that some Party cadres were retiring to advisory positions. See, for example, a 1980 article that notes a former Party committee secretary of a Chongqing district who had been an adviser for two years. Renmin ribao, 26 05 1980, p. 5.Google Scholar

26. The initial arrangement introduced in 1978 had advisers advising at a level lower than their pre-retirement position, a problematic relationship given the principle of leadership by the Party organization.

27. See Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhi bu yanjiu shi (ed.), Zuo hao xin shiqi de ganbu gongzuo (Do Well the Cadre Work of the New Period) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1984), pp. 201–203.Google Scholar

28. Decision to Establish Advisers.

29. Renmin ribao, 24 09 1980, p. 3.Google Scholar

30. Remmin ribao 29 01 1981, p. 1.Google Scholar

31. Central Committee, Decision to Establish a Veteran Cadre Retirement System, 20 02 1982Google Scholar, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 1–13.Google Scholar

32. Editorial Board, “Jigou gaige shi yi chang geming” (“Structural reform is a Involution”), Hongqi, 1982, No. 6, p. 5.Google Scholar

33. See Yeping, Chen, “Baozheng dang de shiye jiwang kailai de zhongda juece.”Google Scholar

34. The draft set the average age of the Central Committee at 55 to 65, of provincial Party committee standing committees at 50 to 60, of prefectural Party committee standing committees at 50 or lower, and of county Party committee standing committees at 45 or below. Draft of the Revised Constitution of the Communist Party of China, 2 April 1980, ch. 6, art. 32, in Issues and Studies, Vol. 16, No. 9 (1980), pp. 85–109.

35. Constitution of the Communist Party of China, 6 09 1982Google Scholar, ch. 6, art. 37, in Beijing Review, Vol. 25, No. 38 (1982), p. 19.Google Scholar

36. See below.

37. See Constitution of the Communist Party of China, 6 09 1982Google Scholar, ch. 3, art. 22, and ch. 4, art. 28, pp. 15–17.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: China, 22 07 1983, p. K9.Google Scholar Deng gave the speech on 30 July 1982 at an enlarged meeting of the Politburo.

41. Zhi, Cao, Renshi zhidu gaiyao, pp. 382–83.Google Scholar

42. See below.

43. Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, Ill, and Disabled Cadres; Slate Council, Provisional Regulations on Veteran Cadre Special Retirement, 7 October 1980, in Ju, Guowuyuan Fazhi (ed.), Zhonghua renmin gongheguo fagui kuibian, 1980 (Compilation of 1980 Laws and Regulations of the PRC) (Beijing: Falu chubanshe, 1986), pp. 279–282.Google Scholar

44. In 1978–81, only cadres of prefectural rank and higher were eligible for special retirement status if they had joined the communists after 1945. Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, Ill, and Disabled Cadres. Given the relationship between revolutionary seniority and bureaucratic rank, not many cadres fit that category.

45. Some State Council Regulations on the Veteran Cadre Special Retirement System, 10 April 1982, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 43–46.Google Scholar Most but not all revolutionaries were eligible for special retirement status. The general formulation was that the following cadres were eligible for special retirement status once they reached the retirement age specified for their rank and sex: those who before the founding of the PRC had participated in the revolution under the leadership of the Communist Party, had not engaged in salaried employment but had been paid in kind through the Communist Party supply system, or who had engaged in underground revolutionary work for the Communist Party. The most comprehensive regulation on the issue is the Central Committee's Organization Department, Notice on Establishing Regulations on the Revolutionary Service History for Cadres Who Participated in Revolutionary Work before the Founding of the People's Republic of China, 27 September 1982, in ibid. pp. 104–111. Until 1988, at least 17 other regulations, many of them applicable only to very small groups of cadres, were issued to clarify revolutionary service history standards.

46. Veterans of the Revolutionary Civil Wars (1924–27 and 1927–37) received a bonus of two months' salary, veterans of the early Anti-Japanese War period (1937–42) received one and a half month's salary, and veterans of the later Anti-Japanese War period (1943–45) received one month's salary. Some Regulations on the Veteran Cadre Special Retirement System.

47. Shouyi, Zhao, “Jianli you zhongguo tese de ganbu lixiu tuixiu zhidu” (“Establish a cadre retirement system with Chinese characteristics”), in Renshi zhidu gaige wenxuan bianji zu (ed.), Renshi zhidu gaige wenxuan (Selections on Reform of the Personnel System) (Beijing: Laodong renshi chubanshe, 1983), pp. 130–33.Google Scholar Zhao made the speech in October 1982; he was minister of labour and personnel at the time.

48. See Renmin ribao, 4 01 1983, p. 1Google Scholar, 10 January 1983, p. 3, and 28 January 1983, p. 2. The general secretary at the time was Hu Yaobang.

49. The term tuixiu fei (retirement payment) was generally used to refer to the pensions of regularly retired cadres. The term fei was occasionally used with regard to specially retired cadres; on the other hand, the term gongzi was not used with regard to regularly retired cadres. Zhi, Cao, Renshi zhidu gaiyao, p. 396.Google Scholar

50. One indication that the policy was taken seriously appears in an article in the most prominent periodical for the Chinese elderly. The article complains that work places are pursuing excessively ambitious goals of combining retirement with work activity, to the detriment of the health of retired veterans and with little concern for their preferences. “Xian yure bu ke zhuigui gao bili” (“We must not strive for high proportions in the contribution of surplus energy”), Zhongguo laonian, 1984, No. 3, p. 29.Google Scholar

51. See Central Committee's Organization Department, Opinions on Promoting the Role of Central Committee and State Council Specially Retired Veteran Cadres 11 October 1982, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 196–201Google Scholar; Central Committee, Notice on Strengthening Education of Youth and Preventing Juvenile Delinquency, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 2, pp. 21–33.Google Scholar

52. Decision to Establish a Veteran Cadre Retirement System.

53. Central Committee's Organization Department, Notice on Arranging Organizational Life for Party Members Who Have Specially Retired, Regularly Retired, or Retired for Extraordinary Reasons (tuizhi), 30 07 1981Google Scholar, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 128–131.Google Scholar

54. Central Committee's General Office and Organization Department, Notice on the Reading of Documents by Specially Retired and Regularly Retired Cadres, 26 August 1981, in ibid. pp. 131–33; Central Committee's General Office, Arrangements on the Distribution, Reading, and Management of Central Documents, 10 June 1985, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 2, pp. 118–122.Google Scholar

55. Central Committee's General Office and State Council's General Office, Notice on Implementing Regulations on Benefits for Specially Retired Cadres, 3 June 1984, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 2, pp. 199–202Google Scholar; State Council, Notice for Comrades Who Have Stepped Down from Positions of Leadership in State Council Organs to Give Up Former Offices, 12 February 1988, in Laodong renshi zhengce zhuankan (Journal of Labour and Personnel Policies), 1988, No. 5, p. 16.Google Scholar

56. Some Views of the Central Committee's Organization Department on Strengthening Veteran Cadre Work, 29 December 1978, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 80–88.Google Scholar See also Provisional Regulations on Veteran Cadre Special Retirement; Central Committee's Organization Department, Suggestions on Appropriate Management of Veteran Cadres Who Have Stepped Down from Office, 2 June 1982, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 192–95Google Scholar; Central Committee's Organization Department and Ministry of Labour and Personnel, Trial Measures on Scope of Responsibility of Veteran Cadre Bureaus (and Divisions) in State Council and Central Committee Organizations, 31 December 1982, in ibid. pp. 222–23; Central Committee's Organization Department, Summary of Forum of Nine Provinces (and City) on Veteran Cadre Work, 25 April 1983, in ibid. pp. 89–97.

57. Xingming, Wang (deputy director of Cadre Retirement Division, Veteran Cadre Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Personnel), interviewed in Beijing, 24 11 1986.Google Scholar

58. Chen Liang (deputy director of Special Retirement Division, Cadre Retirement Bureau, Ministry of Personnel), interviewed in Beijing, 7 November 1988. Also larticipating in the interview was Wang Wenbo (director of Cadre Retirement Bureau General Office, Ministry of Personnel).

59. Xingming, Wang, interview, 24 11 1986.Google Scholar

60. Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, Ill, and Disabled Cadres; Provisional Regulations on Veteran Cadre Special Retirement.

61. Ministry of Public Health, Regulations on Medical Care for Specially Retired Cadres, 16 01 1981Google Scholar, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 177–78Google Scholar, and Notice to Revise Medical Care Arrangements for Veteran Experts, 2 07 1981Google Scholar, in ibid. pp. 181–83; Central Committee's Organization Department and Ministry of Public Health, Report on the Extension of Special Medical Care Privileges to Some Specially Retired Veteran Cadres and Party and Non-Party Personages and Experts, 2 06 1982Google Scholar, in ibid. pp. 183–86; Ministry of Labour and Personnel, Notice on Handling Some Specific Problems in Implementing State Council Regulations on Veteran Cadre Special Retirement, 10 December 1982, in ibid. pp. 47–55, and Some Regulations on Convalescence of Specially Retired Cadres, 25 May 1983, in ibid. pp. 90–92; Ministry of Public Health, Supplementary Regulations on Medical Care Privileges for Cadres and Experts at and above the Bureau Level in State Organs Located in Beijing, 13 12 1984Google Scholar, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 2, pp. 229–231Google Scholar; Health Protection Bureau of the Ministry of Public Health, Notice on Procedures and Other Questions about Veteran Cadres and Experts Going to the Provinces for Health Care, 8 05 1986Google Scholar, in ibid. pp. 231–34.

62. Central Committee's Organization Department, Notice on Treating Specially Retired Cadres at Administrative Ranks 14 and 18 (and Higher) Equivalent to Bureau-Level and Division-Level Cadres Respectively, 27 11 1982Google Scholar, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 1, pp. 149–151Google Scholar, and Notice on Simplifying Investigation and Approval Procedures to Grant Specially Retired Cadres at Bureau-Level and Division-Level Treatment, 29 April 1983, in ibid. pp. 152–53; Central Committee's Organization Department and Ministry of Labour and Personnel, Notice on Benefits for Some Veteran Cadres Specially Retired after Salary Reform, 6 September 1985, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 2, pp. 218–19.Google Scholar

63. Central Committee's Organization Department, Opinions on Establishing Benefits for Some Veteran Comrades, 17 03 1984Google Scholar, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 2, pp. 98–101.Google Scholar

64. Liang, Chen, interview, 7 11 1988.Google Scholar

65. The retirement age for women workers was set five years below that for cadres. See State Council Provisional Measures on the Retirement of Workers, 2 06 1978Google Scholar, in Laodong renshi bu zhengce yanjiu shi (ed.), Zhonghua renmin gongheguo laodong fagui xuanbian (Selected Labour Laws and Regulations of the PRC) (Beijing: Laodong renshi chubanshe, 1986), pp. 337–340.Google Scholar

66. Policy-makers also granted retirement bonuses for regularly retired cadres who were national labour heroes, national labour models, war heroes, and cadres with special contributions to the revolution or socialist construction. Bonuses were set at 5 to 15% of salary, added to the pension, with the stipulation that total pension could not exceed pre-retirement salary. Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, Ill, and Disabled Cadres.

67. See Zhi, Cao, Renshi zhidu gaiyao, p. 392Google Scholar; Chunxie, Pi and Huanguang, Zhang, Xiandai gongwuyuan zhidu yanjiu (A Study of the Contemporary Civil Service System) (Beijing: Zhongguo guangbo dianshi chubanshe, 1988), p. 232.Google Scholar

68. Jinbo, Hu, “Li tuixiu ganbu ying tongyi guanli” (“Regularly and specially retired cadres should be jointly managed”), Renshi (Personnel), 1988, No. 4, p. 13.Google Scholar

69. In 1963 the Central Committee's Secretariat issued a decision calling on leaders of ministries and provinces to retire if old age had affected their ability to lead. In 1965 the Central Committee's Organization Department drafted a set of regulations based on that decision. The regulations began to be implemented in a few ministries as a pilot project, but were never implemented generally. The whole effort was soon interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. See Zhi, Cao, Renshi zhidu gaiyao, pp. 382–83.Google Scholar

70. Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, Ill, and Disabled Cadres.

71. Decision to Establish a Veteran Cadre Retirement System.

72. Some Regulations on the Veteran Cadre Special Retirement System.

73. The following cadres, men and women, were to retire at 65: government ministers and Central Committee department heads, provincial Party committee first secretaries, and provincial governors. The following were to retire at 60: deputy ministers and Central Committee department deputy heads, provincial Party committee secretaries (other than first secretaries), provincial deputy governors, bureau chiefs and their deputies in State Council and Central Committee bureaus, heads and deputy; heads in provincial Party committee and provincial government departments, prefectural Party committee secretaries and deputy secretaries, and prefectural commissioners and deputy commissioners.

74. The models were promoted in a September 1984 circular issued by the Central Committee's General Office. See Foreign Broadcast Information Service, China: Daily Report, 5 09 1984, p. K3.Google Scholar

75. Zhaohua, Wang, “Ganbu ‘sihua’ he ganbu zhidu gaige de jige wenti.”Google Scholar

76. Central Committee's Organization Department, Notice to Expedite the Processing of Special Retirement, 12 11 1985Google Scholar, in Gongzuo wenjian, Vol. 2, p. 122.Google Scholar

77. See Zhimin, Yi, Rubai, Li, and Zhenmin, Hu (eds.), Guojia gongwuyuan gailun (Introduction to the National Civil Service) (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 1989), p. 211.Google Scholar

78. Provisional Measures on Arrangements for Aged, Weak, Ill, and Disabled Cadres.

79. Communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

80. On the campaigns, see de B. Mills, William, “Generational change in China,” Problems of Communism, Vol. 32, No. 6 (1983), pp. 16–35Google Scholar; Forster, Keith, “The reform of provincial Party committees in China: the case of Zhejiang,” Asian Survey, Vol. 24, No. 6 (1984), pp. 618–636CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Repudiation of the Cultural Revolution in China: the case of Zhejiang,” Pacific Affairs, Vol. 59, No. 1 (1986), pp. 5–27Google Scholar; Lee, Hong Yung, “Deng Xiaoping's reforms of the Chinese bureaucracy,” in Morse, Ronald A. (ed.), The Limits of Reform in China (Boulder: Westview Press, 1983), pp. 19–37Google Scholar; Lieberthal, Kenneth, “China in 1982: a middling course for the Middle Kingdom,” Asian Survey, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1983), pp. 26–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

81. Central Committee's Organization Department, Some Decisions Which Cadres at All Levels Must Observe during Structural Reform, issued in early 1983, Renmin ribao, 12 02 1983, p. 1.Google Scholar

82. Liang, Chen, interview, 7 11 1988.Google Scholar

83. Baotang, Su and Yi, Lin (eds.), Guojia gongwuyuan zhidu jianghua (A Guide to the National Civil Service System) (Beijing: Laodong renshi chubanshe, 1988), p. 340Google Scholar. This observation is supported by my own interviews with cadres and with officials in the Ministry of Personnel.

84. Decision to Establish a Veteran Cadre Retirement System.

85. See Di, Zhu, “Lun ganbu de xinlao jiaoti” (“On the transfer of duties from veteran to new cadres”), in Qing, Han and Furong, Qiu (eds.), Laodong renshi zhidu gaige wenxuan (Selections on Reform of the Labour and Personnel Systems) (Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe, 1987), pp. 74–86.Google Scholar

86. Liang, Chen, interview, 7 11 1988Google Scholar. See also Mengpi, Shen, “Guojia gongwuyuan de tuixiu tuizhi zhidu” (“National civil service retirement system”), in Junlin, Liu and Guangqian, Dai (eds.), Guojia gongwuyuan zhidu jianghua (A Guide to the National Civil Service System) (Beijing: Nengyuan chubanshe, 1989), pp. 226–252.Google Scholar

87. Wenbo, Wang (director of Cadre Retirement General Office, Ministry of Personnel), interviewed in Beijing, 9 02 1990.Google Scholar

88. See Yung-sheng, Ch'en, “Peiping's current cadre policy,” Issues and Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1983), pp. 14–30Google Scholar; Yung-hsien, Tseng, “The new leadership in mainland China,” Issues and Studies, Vol. 18, No. 6 (1983), pp. 15–42.Google Scholar

89. See Hsueh-ch'un, Fang, “Personnel changes in the CCP's central leadership,” Issues and Studies, Vol. 21, No. 12 (1985), pp. 27–54Google Scholar; Ying-ming, Li, “The recent changes in the Peking leadership,” Issues and Studies, Vol. 21, No. 12 (1985), pp. 65–75.Google Scholar

90. Moreover, in the case of Deng (as Zhao Ziyang later revealed), Party leaders secretly agreed that he would be consulted on all major policy decisions, despite his retirement from all positions except chairman of the Central Military Commission. Of course, most people were ignorant of the deal until Zhao, 's revelation in 05 1989Google Scholar. See the account in “Deng purges Zhao supporters, South China Morning Post, 22 05 1989, p. 6.Google Scholar

91. Deng, 's talk on quelling rebellion in Beijing,” Beijing Review, Vol. 32, No. 28 (1989), pp. 18–21.Google Scholar