HICCS 2025

Title:
The Prevalence of Tuanpai within Subnational Party Committees in China

Abstract:
This paper examines the political career progression within China, focusing on the representation of tuanpai, former members of the Communist Youth League (CYL), within the provincial-level party committees of the Chinese Communist Party. Using a comprehensive dataset of profiles from all 31 provincial-level units (provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) selected during two seasons of provincial party congresses in 2016/2017 and 2021/2022 (n=6207), this study investigates the prevalence of former CYL members in these committees. Additionally, it explores the correlation between appointing former CYL members as provincial Party Secretaries and the broader representation of former CYL members within those provincial committees.
The analysis is conducted on three levels: 1) an overview of the population of all committees (“global approach”) 2) comparison of tuanpai prevalence across provincial-level committees (“provincial approach”) 3) examination of the provincial party standing committees, which include 10-14 most influential officials in each province (“core groups approach”).

This study aims to reveal changes in recruitment preferences for subnational political elites during Xi Jinping's administration and demonstrate the potential influence of CYL networks on power distribution at the provincial level after a decade of his leadership.