| Abstract: | The Tiananmen Square massacre left a permanent scar on the Chinese government's legitimacy to govern. This article examines a little-known backdrop to the student movement: the college graduate job placement system reform and the civil service recruitment system reform that were rolled out together by the state in the mid to late 1980s. The two reforms were interlocking, because civil service jobs were the most desired jobs for graduates at the time. As the college job placement system reform placed a greater burden on the individual student to find a job for him or herself, the civil service recruitment system reform remained opaque. This led to strong student disaffection as graduates tended to believe that the forthcoming open job market was to be filled with more nepotism and less meritocracy and this perceived lack of fair recruitment opportunities extended to the greatly desired civil service jobs. |
