Back to school for county officials to strengthen CPC ruling

Since ancient times, Chinese have used the word "sesame" to describe the insignificance of county level officials in the social hierarchy.

But Chinese President Xi Jinping described the role of county level Party chiefs as the "front-line commanders in chief" in his latest speech, saying counties are an important link for higher and lower levels of the Party and the government.

A program, organized by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, was launched last November to train all county-level Party chiefs by the end of 2017. A total of 206 county Party chiefs joined the first session of the seminar and listened to Xi's speech.

Xu Rui, Party chief of Ruijin City in east China's Jiangxi Province, believed his participation in the seminar was an inspiring experience.

"The seminar has made a golden opportunity for me to leave the busy daily work to study and work on self-improvement," he said.

LOW LEVEL BUT HEAVY RESPONSIBILITY

Unlike in Japan and the United States, where counties play a larger role, they are considered very low in China, above only villages and townships in terms of administrative level.

China has more than 2,800 counties or county-level administrative regions. They play a key role in connecting the grassroots with the upper echelons of the state.

Yu Xin'an, head of the Henan provincial academy of social sciences, knows how complicated a county Party chief's job can be.

"Apart from foreign affairs, military and national defense, a county Party chief needs to attend to all aspects of the area," he said.

The Chinese President started his career as a Party chief in county government. The county where he worked, Zhengding in north China's Hebei Province, is less than 300 kilometers away from Beijing.

Xi Jinping said county-level governments have taken on more responsibility in reforms, promotion of the rule of law and the enforcement of strict Party discipline.

However, work as a county Party chief can be difficult.