New approaches to promotion

Growth-oriented criteria for officials should be replaced with emphasis on sustainable development and the rule of law

In China's bureaucratic system, there used to be hidden rules that influenced whether a senior official in a region was promoted. The most obvious was the "GDP law": Whoever made the greatest contribution to GDP growth was promoted more quickly than his rivals.

For this reason, high-ranking local officials followed more or less the same path as they sought to climb the career ladder. They concentrated on attracting business investment, launching large construction projects such as subways or big plazas, and developing realty programs, all of which could stimulate GDP growth over a short period.