Ideological Education and Practical Training at a County Party School: Shaping Local Governance in Contemporary China

Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party is concentrating efforts on the cultivation of outstanding local cadres in order to improve local governance. For this purpose, it is strengthening the functions of local Party schools that offer students both political and administrative education to create a cohort of cadres who are both “red and expert.” We discuss how this is done in terms of curriculum planning, types of classes, and the student pool, using the example of County Z Party School. We find that since the national Eighteenth Party Congress, the Central Committee has reinforced its control over local Party schools to ensure that their curriculum and the methods they use to train cadres are consistent with national Party directives, as part of Beijing’s efforts to strengthen the Party’s grassroots governance.