More than 4,500 Shenzhen policemen took written examinations Saturday for 623 section-level vacancies in the city's police force.

This is the largest-ever selection process of officials in the public security bureau since it was founded in 1979.

"In the past, police officials were appointed by higher-level leaders or according to the staff's working years. The competition, a breakthrough of the traditional official selection process, marks a significant personnel reform in the bureau," said Liu Kuanzhi, deputy Party secretary at the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau.

"The competition aims at selecting capable talents for the positions and hence improving the overall quality of our police staff. We hope the people we finally select are knowledgeable, and familiar with police services as well as Chinese laws," he said.

The bureau will keep the process fair and transparent, he said.

The 623 positions, comprising 282 openings for section chief and 341 openings for vice section chiefs, make up 90 percent of all existing section-level vacancies in the bureau. Applicants are required to hold at least a junior college degree and should have worked for three years as public servants at the minimum.

The whole selection process involves 11 parts. Other parts include interviews and training.

More than 1,800 people will be selected based on their scores from Saturday's examinations. The interviews will be held from Nov. 19 to 20.

(Shenzhen Daily November 14, 2005)