China is further narrowing access to a key government recruitment programme for overseas-educated graduates, limiting their pathways into the country’s civil service and party-state system. More than a dozen provincial-level regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, opened applications for the 2027 xuandiaosheng recruitment rounds in September and October. Xuandiaosheng, or the “selected graduates” system, is designed to select and train university graduates to become elite cadres and officials...