Civil service grades of China

The civil service grades of China determine the salaries received by both civil and military public servants. The scale has 25 grades in total.

Relationship with appointment

Chinese law establishes four kinds of appointment procedures:

• Special appointment (特任), only for elected or ministerial officials whose tenures are not guaranteed.
• Direct appointment (簡任), selected with approval of the central or central and provincial cabinet.
• Recommended appointment (薦任), appointed at the recommendation of the head of agency.
• Devolved appointment (委任), appointed by head of agency.

The rationale for separate appointment procedures is to ensure that roles demanding policy development and interpretation abilities will be filled at a higher level where such abilities are more visible and relevant. These roles often but do not always co-incide with seniority in management or supervision. Additionally, if all positions are controlled from above, lower-ranking executives may face difficulty with stagnant staffing options.

Appointment vs grade

Grade	Possible appointments					Position	Salary pts	Military rank
1	Special	Cabinet				Cabinet Secretary	800
2						Ordinary Deputy Secretary	600
3						Divisional Secretary	480	General
4			Approval			Director-general (C); Chief Statistician (A)	420	Lieutenant-general
5						Deputy Divisional Secretary (C), Senior inspector (A)	360	Major-general
6						Policy Advisor (C)	320	Brigadier-general
7				Discretion		Special Commissioner (C), County Secretary (D)	290	Colonel
8						Secretary (C)	260	Lieutenant-colonel
9						Office Chief (A)	230	Major
10						Secretary (A)	210	Captain
11						Deputy Office Chief (A)	190	Lieutenant
12						Senior supervisor (A)	170	Ensign
13						Supervisor (A)	150	Warrant Officer I
14						Senior specialist (A)	130	Warrant Officer II
15						Specialist (A), Secretary (D)	115	Warrant Officer III
16						Recording officer-in-charge	100	Sergeant-major I
17						Senior recording officer	90	Sergeant-major II
18						Recording officer	80	Sergeant-major III
19					Temporary	Tenure-based	72	N/A
20							64
21							56
22							50
23							45
24							42
25							40

Relationship with testing

China maintains a rigorous system of examinations that grades public service candidates according to their aptitude for office at certain grades. The Examination Act classifies civil service examinations as follows:

Civil examination tiers

Exam level	Eligibility	Education qualification
Higher Exam I	C8	Higher Exam II qualified
Higher Exam II	A10	Doctorate or Master's degree or equivalent experience
Higher Exam III	A13	Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
Standard Exam	D13	Senior high school or equivalent experience
Basic Exam	D18	N/A

See also

• Republic of China