Pinpointing the Chinese Nomenklatura: An Index to Rank China’s Leadership Positions

ABSTRACT In China, too many leadership positions are assigned to the same broad administrative levels, creating difficulty in distinguishing their specific political rankings. Pinpointing their exact political significance, this study proposes an index using the common joint appointments of party and government positions in the Chinese Nomenklatura. After coming up with the index, to demonstrate applicability, this article uses it first to assess China’s provincial-level positions and then extend it down to prefecture-level and up to Central ministerial positions. The authors believe that this new index enables better observation and interpretation of China’s leadership transfers and, consequently, improves researchers’ understanding of the prospects of Chinese politicians and the dynamics of the Chinese polity.