Thomas HEBERER

Government buildings in Shanghai. The cadre system organizes the various Communist Party functionaries, civil servants, or government administrators into a hierarchy—judged by length of service or performance on the job, for instance. Officials at the top, not surprisingly, reap the most benefits. PHOTO BY JOAN LEBOLD COHEN.
Similar to the system of China’s traditional civil service hierarchy, the cadre system ???? refers to the fifteen ranks (previously twenty-five) by which Communist Party functionaries and other civil