Theoretical and empirical research on the promotion mechanism of Chinese local officials has gone through more than 20 years. With the economists such as Zhou Li’an and so on refining it as a “promotional championship theory”,explaining economic development from the perspective of local government competition and promotion of local officials has become a theoretical framework with international influence. In the process，the investigation and debate about the promotion mechanism in China has not stopped，but has been continuously updated and improved，which constitutes the core of the entire research topic. This paper systematically sorts out the context of the study of local officials’ promotion mechanism，emphasizes the economists’constant reflection and improvement of the theory of local officials’incentives and competition，and points out future research direction