Government/Politics

Although sending children to study at overseas universities has long been popular among wealthy Chinese families, authorities are increasingly closing off pathways for these graduates to advance within the government system.

More than a dozen Chinese provincial-level regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, began recruiting candidates for their 2027 targeted graduate selection programs in September and October. The programs largely exclude graduates of overseas universities, continuing a trend that has narrowed opportunities for Chinese students returning from abroad.

The programs recruit outstanding graduates from designated universities as a talent pool for future government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership positions. Successful candidates enter the civil service and typically must serve in grassroots positions, such as township and subdistrict offices, for several years before becoming eligible for advancement. Applicants generally must be CCP members or outstanding student leaders.

The exclusion marks a shift from earlier policies. For the 2023 and 2024 graduating classes, at least 10 provincial-level regions, including Beijing and Guangdong, accepted degrees from selected internationally ranked universities. Since 2025, however, overseas graduates have largely disappeared from eligibility lists. Some regions, including Heilongjiang, have explicitly excluded graduates of foreign universities.

One possible explanation for the policy shift is growing official concern over foreign influence. In 2025, Xinhua cited Chinese state security authorities warning that overseas students could be vulnerable to recruitment by foreign intelligence agencies.

Source: Epoch Times, November 1, 2026
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/26/10/31/n14880659.htm

October 26 marked the opening of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which focused on Party building. On the same day, People’s Daily published a lengthy editorial under the pen name Ren Zhongping (任仲平), a name that is a homophone for “People’s Daily’s Important Commentary.” The article emphasized the need for the entire CCP to follow Xi Jinping’s leadership. The following are key excerpts from the article.

Since the 18th Party Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. The greatest political achievement of this era has been establishing Comrade Xi Jinping as the core of the Party Central Committee and the entire Party, and establishing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guiding ideology.

Advancing Party building as a great project while consistently upholding the principles of the Party governing itself and exercising strict self-governance has been a major instrument for establishing the Party and the state and strengthening both.

“Upholding the Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership” is an important component of Xi Jinping’s thinking on Party building and the highest principle of Party leadership.

The primary task of “upholding political building as the overarching principle of Party building” is to “ensure that the entire Party obeys the Central Committee and upholds the authority of the Central Committee and its centralized and unified leadership.”

Source: People’s Daily, October 26, 2026
http://dangjian.people.com.cn/n1/2026/1026/c117092-40821438.html

An open letter claiming to come from students at multiple Chinese universities appeared at about 3 p.m. on October 26 on a website called “Siyuan Lake BBS,” according to Radio Free Asia. The letter calls for restoring term limits for China’s president, pursuing democratic constitutional reform, and protecting space for citizens to discuss national affairs.

Titled “A Joint Appeal from a Group of University Students of the Republic,” the letter is addressed to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, and members of the 20th Central Committee’s Fifth Plenary Session. It invokes Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping on democracy and checks on power, and questions the 2018 constitutional change that removed the two-term limit on the presidency. It makes three requests: abolishing indefinite presidential tenure, launching democratic constitutional revision, and safeguarding citizens’ ability to discuss state affairs. The authors say they do not intend confrontation.

The letter lists 14 signatory universities, including Peking University, Renmin University of China and Xiamen University, but provides no individual names or proof of endorsement. By midnight Beijing time on October 27, it had 656 views and one “like.” The author, “Lin Ziyi,” is a Level 1 account whose first post this was.

Radio Free Asia could not confirm the author’s identity, whether the signatories are students, or whether the listed schools were involved. Its checks found that the site’s registration data lists South Korea, with a mailing address in Singapore, while the administrator’s email is hosted on Tencent servers and the contact phone and WeChat are Chinese numbers. The site describes itself as an unofficial forum and uses a “.com” domain. Whether it operates inside China remains unclear.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 26, 2026
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/podcasts/yataibaodao/2026/10/26/student-protest-xi-bbs/

A commentary in Study Times, the Central Party School’s newspaper, argues that a new central guideline on strengthening social work in the new era moves Party building in emerging sectors from strategic planning into policy implementation. The author, who heads the united front department at the Central Party School (National Academy of Governance), says making Party organizational and work coverage “tangible and effective” is the foundation of this effort. He ties it to improving social governance and to national rejuvenation, and notes that Xi Jinping has stressed Party building in new economic organizations, new social organizations and new employment groups since the 20th Party Congress.

The article credits recent progress. By the end of 2025, the Party had 201,000 grassroots organizations in social organizations, which it says essentially meets the goal of establishing them wherever required. Localities have also tried new models, including standalone, regionally joint and industry-wide Party organizations, plus “cloud,” project-based and industrial-chain Party building.

Problems remain, however. Coverage is thin among small and micro enterprises, platform franchisees and frontline outlets, which often have short lifespans. One-person companies built around AI collaboration add difficulty because they have few Party members who move frequently and work remotely. “Pocket” and “invisible” Party members persist. Some organizations exist without meaningful activities, joint branches are weak, and Party work is disconnected from business development.

The author proposes balancing four relationships: commonality and individuality, locality and workplace, mobility and fixity, and online and offline activity. He also urges ongoing surveys to build dynamic data on members, smoother online transfers of membership ties, identity markers for mobile members, and evaluation incentives. Coverage should be tailored by organization type: large firms can establish their own organizations, smaller ones can form joint branches, and one-person companies can rely on parks, buildings or neighborhoods. He also notes that many workers in these sectors were born in the 1990s and 2000s, which opens room for new approaches.

Source: Study Times, October 23, 2026
https://www.studytimes.cn/llsd/202610/t20261023_93464.html

The Chinese Communist Party’s Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee is set to open in Beijing on October 26. According to the X account “Baodian Weekly,” a confidential central-level document discloses for the first time 18 security and stability measures the party has arranged for the meeting, including stepped-up intelligence gathering on, and behavior prediction of, “sensitive” foreigners.

The report says the office of the central leadership group for safeguarding political security and social stability recently sent a notice to provincial-level coordination bodies, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and relevant member units and task forces. The notice urges officials to maintain bottom-line and worst-case thinking, concentrate on defusing major political and social risks, and ensure stability throughout the session.

Authorities are told to enforce party and national security responsibility systems, with local governments, industry regulators and legal organs sharing accountability. Departments must keep staff on duty around the clock and report any major emergency promptly, without delay, omission, falsification or concealment. A daily reporting mechanism requires submissions by 6 p.m. each day, whether or not anything has happened.

Among the 18 requirements, officials must watch for infiltration and subversion by overseas separatist forces and tighten vetting and monitoring of diplomats, journalists and NGO staff from key countries traveling to sensitive areas in China. They are also to guard against flash-mob disruptions, reactionary slogans displayed on screens or banners, and illegal drone flights, and to curb foreign religious infiltration and illegal domestic religious activity. Other measures include enforcing the no-fly zone over the capital, tightly controlling petitioners traveling to Beijing, preventing mass incidents and individual extreme cases, and strengthening management of online public opinion.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 13, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610130073.aspx