Dali Yang, the head of the University of Chicago's China centre in Beijing, said students are increasingly joining in order to win better jobs. A government job is seen as a ticket to prosperity. It is often referred to as an "iron rice bowl" – effectively a job for life as you cannot be fired. But the job can also provide the opportunity to receive bribes – a practice which is so rife across China it has spurred huge government campaigns to eradicate it.