Civil Service Reform in China, 1993-2001: A Case of Implementation Failure

China's civil service reform programme inaugurated in 1993, was aimed at enhancing the state's ability to respond to new needs emerging amidst a rapidly changing socio-economic environment. This article discusses the contours of the programme and argues that its implementation process generated a dynamic between central policymakers who sought to optimise economic rationality and local leaders who placed more emphasis on coping with conflicts arising from the implementation of the reform. It also argues that many of the reform initiatives were more symbolic than real. Implementation problems were more pronounced in lower-level governments and were attributed to conflictual policy context.