Abstract:Facing the development gap between the East and the West of China, the western region must comprehensively improve the quality of development, which cannot be separated from the leading group's guidance and promotion. While existing literature has extensively explored and discussed the characteristics and configuration structure of leading cadres, it is also crucial to compare disparities in overall competence among leading cadres across different regions and analyze their underlying causes, so as to identify appropriate remedies. Comparing the group characteristics of the leading groups in the East and the West has certain reference value for the cultivation and selection of leading cadres of the western region. Based on the high-level echelon theory, this paper adopts the stratified sampling method by taking leading cadres of the Party and government at county level of Guangdong, Tianjin, Shanxi, and Chongqing as research object. Based on the resumes of 562 leaders, it compares and analyzes commonness and differences of group characteristics of the Party and government leading groups in the East and West China from demographic characteristics dimension, educational background dimension, and career development experience dimension. In this study, EXCEL is used to make statistical analysis on the variables of each indicator of the characteristics of county-level leaders, and the distribution structure and characteristics of the variables are displayed through data such as standard deviation and mean value. SPSS21.0 software is utilized to examine differences between county-level leading groups in eastern and western regions through t-tests and chi-square tests. The findings reveal that while gender, ethnicity, political outlooks, educational backgrounds exhibit similar patterns among leading groups in both east and west; notable disparities exist with regard to native place distribution, age composition, employment experience, and career advancement paths. Specifically, age distribution of county-level leading groups in west regions demonstrates an evident pattern characterized by "more at younger and older ages but fewer at middle ages", whereas native place structures indicate a reference for local candidates over non-locals. Moreover, humanities-based educational backgrounds are more prevalent than technical ones. Additionally, the employment experience tends to be relatively homogeneous with limited diversity. Furthermore, the proportion of bottom-up promotion is lower. Based on the results of the comparative analysis, it is suggested that the construction of the western leading groups should focus on strengthening the construction of coordination efficiency of the leading group, optimizing the structure of the leading group cadres, improving the modern cadre appointment and selection mechanism, and intensifying the exchange system of the leading cadres.