China's civil service to open 24,000 vacancies in annual intake

BEIJING - China plans to recruit about 24,000 civil servants to work for 86 central agencies and 23 institutions directly attached to them in the 2020 civil servant intake, the State Administration of Civil Service said Monday.

The recruitment, the first after the country's civil servant law was revised, offers more vacancies than about 14,500 last year.

Applications will be open from Oct. 15 to 24, with positions to be posted on authorized websites, the administration said.

Candidates will need to take a national written exam, which is scheduled to be held on Nov. 24 across the country, while those applying for certain positions related to finance, public security, foreign affairs and other fields will take an additional professional skills test.

Candidates will be evaluated based on their overall performance in the written tests, a physical examination and an internship.

Political integrity will be a primary criterion and the majority of the positions in Party and government agencies above the provincial level will require two years of grassroots work experience, according to the administration.

More than 2,700 vacancies will be open only to those working in some primary-level projects, as well as veterans who have college degrees and served for a minimum of five years.

Certain requirements, such as test scores and work experience, will be lowered for those applying for positions in remote poor areas to encourage college graduates to contribute to the development of local communities and areas with harsh conditions.

About 920,000 people took the national civil servant exam in 2018, down from 1.13 million in 2017.