National Civil Service Examination
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The people who can't quite get a government job
It's a fiendishly difficult "brain burning" exam that promises those who pass a job for life. And that prize is so coveted that some come back again and again for more test punishment. China's National Civil Service Exam or "Guokao" took place this week. Every year around a million people take the test in an attempt to get one of about 27,000 government jobs dubbed "iron rice bowls", with guaranteed job security, steady income and benefits. Chances of success are 36 to one this year. The exam is the talk of Chinese social media, and along with hashtags such as #Guokao and #2017Guokao, Weibo users were fascinated by the story of one woman who has taken the exam six times. Local media reported that the woman, identified as 30-year-old Mrs Huang, is currently working as casual staff in a government department, so she only earns half of the salary of permanent staff who've passed the exam. She's failed on five attempts to pass and, undaunted, sat it again this year. Huang told a local reporter that she would continue to take the exam even if she failed, until she is disqualified by age, which normally happens at 35 unless applicants have a master's or PhD degree. Weibo users praised Mrs Huang's persistence and hard work. "The spirit of dedication is amazing," wrote user Yang Zimo. "Not everyone can hang on there. Keep on trying, the result doesn't matter. Life is a learning journey. Don't regret it." But others said there were alternative routes to success and questioned her need to take the same exam again and again. "Are there no other ways to follow if you fail the national civil service exam? Why do you torture yourself?" one asked. "It's better to spend time on something else," another added. The exam consists of five hours of written tests and interviews, includes 135 multiple-choice questions that candidates have to answer in two hours - which means there's less than a minute to answer each question. The questions cover a wide range of topics, including maths, world affairs, language, and logic. This year, the test also covered "spacecraft", "artificial intelligence" and other hot topics, while the essay topic was "water wisdom and urban development." And after the test, there are further interviews. The exams fill jobs in central, provincial and municipal governments, and applicants can specify the position they're aiming for, which makes some posts more competitive than others. This year for instance, a total of 9,837 people have applied for the most competitive job in the general office of the China Democratic League's Central Committee, although there is only one position available. At the grassroots level though, 223 vacancies drew no applicants. Many of those who took the exam shared their feelings on social media. Some users said the test was "brain burning" and they had used up their "prehistoric power" - a reference to a famous quote from Chinese Olympian bronze medallist, Fu Yuanhui. The #Guokao hashtag has been viewed over 2.5 billion times. Huang is not the only woman who's persistent about taking the exam. Yolanda from Shandong told BBC Trending that she also took the exam six times before she passed in 2016. "I was under pressure from my family and my boyfriend," she says. "Before I finally passed the National Civil Service Exam, I attended a training class and concentrated on preparing for the exam over five months on a full-time basis. It's really hard work plus luck." However, she has a word of warning for Huang. "After working less than one year, I actually regretted my decision." Yolanda admitted. "The civil service job is boring and I do the same work day after day. I work in the financial department of the water conservation bureau. I'm very enthusiastic but work is not that busy." Her sentiments were echoed on Weibo by one user going by the name Linyuan-y who passed the exam two years ago. "This is like a siege. People from outside of the circle desperately want to get in, but people inside also want to quit the jobs and explore the world outside. If you are capable, why not try to challenge yourself and explore the wider society?"
76 senior officials have studied abroad: report
By Liu Caiyu Seventy-six senior officials at provincial-level and above have received overseas education, with nearly half of them in the US, according to a report issued on Monday. A total of 40 members and alternate members of the 18th CPC Central Committee and 17.6 percent of ministers or vice ministers of the government have studied abroad, according to the 2016 report on the development of Chinese students abroad issued by the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization on Monday. The US is the most popular destination for Chinese students, who make up 31 percent of the international students in the country, the report said. China is the world's biggest single source of international students, with 1.26 million Chinese students studying abroad in 2015, accounting for one-fourth of the international enrollments worldwide. "Students who have overseas education background will contribute more to China's involvement in globalization, particularly at a time when China is playing a leading role in global governance," Miao Lu, the Secretary of the think tank, told the Global Times on Tuesday. "Although the US President-elect Donald Trump created some diplomatic frictions with China recently, the number of Chinese students to the US is unlikely to drop in the coming years," Miao said, explaining that the Trump administration will withdraw the support to illegal immigrants but not foreign talents. While the growth rate of Chinese students studying overseas has slowed, the number of students coming back to China expands rapidly. In 2015, the number of Chinese students returning home reached 400,000, a 12 percent increase compared with the previous year, the report said. From 1978 to 2015, a total of 2.21 million Chinese students returned after studying overseas, nearly half of the Chinese international students in that period. But the employment market in China for the returning students is not as rosy as before, with less than 10,000 jobs specifically requiring overseas education experience in 2015. Among the returned overseas students, almost a third choose to work in Beijing and 19 percent in the financial industry, the report said. The report also revealed that returnees prefer government jobs, with 32 percent of them saying they plan to or have already taken the national civil service exam. Premier Li Keqiang said in 2014 that the national soft power construction in China needs overseas education. Meanwhile, China has also become a popular choice for international students, mainly from South Korea, the US and Thailand. The number of South Korean students in China reached 66,700 last year, making up nearly 17 percent of the total 400,000 foreign students studying in China. In 2015, the number of international students in China increased by 290,000 compared to that of 2005, the report said. The Chinese Ministry of Education in 2010 issued a plan to attract international students, which aims to boost the total to 500,000 by 2020, making China the biggest destination for foreign students in Asia.
National civil service exam poses up-to-date questions
The annual civil service exam kicked off on Sunday, and some recent topics－such as college graduates starting their own businesses and the Yutu lunar rover－appeared in the exam questions. The 1.48 million people who qualified to take the exam marked an increase of 90,000 over last year, while the number of positions offered－27,000－remained almost the same. The number of people who actually took the exam is yet to be released. Last year, only 930,000 of the 1.39 million qualified finally entered the exam halls. According to exam questions and some test-takers' feedback posted online after the exam, the difficulty of the questions was moderate and hot political and social issues, such as the Long March rockets, China's foreign affairs, the Yutu (Jade Rabbit) lunar rover and entrepreneurial efforts by college students, were mentioned. The exam, consisting of writing tests and interviews, is a requirement to be hired by the central government to work as a civil servant, often considered a stable line of work with a good salary. The interviews were expected to be held in February or March, after the writing test results come out in January. This year, for the most hotly contested position－one at the Central Committee of the China Democratic League's reception office－there were about 10,000 competitors. People's interest in taking the exam recovered this year, after declining the previous two years. Peng Zhongbao, an official of the State Administration of Civil Service, said the fluctuation is normal, as "the number of people registering for the exam is affected by a series of factors, including the number of young people entering the job market each year, the fairness of the civil servant recruiting system and so on." People dubbed this year's exam "the most stringent one in history", as a series regulations took effect in October, stipulating that those cheating or being involved in cheating will permanently lose their qualification to become a civil servant. What's more, those caught cheating could face a prison sentence of between three and seven years, according to an amendment to the Criminal Law that took effect in November last year.
Knowledge Graph
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1 Among the 1.49 million candidates qualified to take the 2017 Chinese National Civil Service Examination (NCSE), only 86.58% of them actually took it.
2 The scores for the recent NCSE examination round, simultaneously held at over 900 testing sites nationwide last weekend, will be released in mid-January.
3 Some test-takers this year said they found some aspects of it challenging, with the appearance of hot contemporary words such as Spacecraft, Artificial Intelligence and Yutu Lunar Rover in the Administrative Aptitude Test, part of NCSE.