4 ms·

I remember reading somewhere that the Chinese government is full of engineers/STEM degree holders, Physics, Civil, etc as opposed to lawyers in the U.S. Assumi

I remember reading somewhere that the Chinese government is full of engineers/STEM degree holders, Physics, Civil, etc as opposed to lawyers in the U.S. Assuming that's true, it makes sense from a 30,000ft level. CCP requires leaders to meet some socio-economic goal and that requires competency and a loose ability to apply scientific methodology. In the U.S. it's much more important to argue your case, sound good and wiggle your way through the rules of law to get your way. The above is an obviously charitable view of the Chinese system, but I can't help but feel that the U.S. has become too comfortable and apart from reality which this pandemic is now checking us for.

mywittyname 6y ago
It's likely that these same people would have studied political science, law, or economics had they been born Americans. I think a healthy amount of this is inertia. Future Western bureaucrats tend to study those fields because current Western bureaucrats tend to have degrees in those fields. So when prospects are researching how to break into said field, they discover that those majors are a proven means of achieving that goal.
rrryougi 6y ago
I'm afraid the good old day of engineer/STEM leadership in CCP has long gone due to Culture Revolution. Most of the current CCP leaders grew up during that time, when the education system of the whole country was basically destroyed. As a result, the education level of the current Politburo members is shockingly low. For example, Xi Jinping barely finished his middle school, then went to Tsinghua as a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student[1]. Apparently he was not well-educated, as he makes so many illiterate mistakes [2] in public speeches. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker-Peasant-Soldier_student https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker-Peasant-Soldier_stude... [2] https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%B9%E4%B9%A0%E8%BF%91%E5%B9%B3%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%89%E8%AE%AE#%E7%94%A8%E8%AF%8D%E4%BA%89%E8%AE%AE https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%B9%E4%B9%A0%E8%BF%91%...

mywittyname 6y ago

It's likely that these same people would have studied political science, law, or economics had they been born Americans. I think a healthy amount of this is inertia. Future Western bureaucrats tend to study those fields because current Western bureaucrats tend to have degrees in those fields. So when prospects are researching how to break into said field, they discover that those majors are a proven means of achieving that goal.

rrryougi 6y ago

I'm afraid the good old day of engineer/STEM leadership in CCP has long gone due to Culture Revolution. Most of the current CCP leaders grew up during that time, when the education system of the whole country was basically destroyed. As a result, the education level of the current Politburo members is shockingly low. For example, Xi Jinping barely finished his middle school, then went to Tsinghua as a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student[1]. Apparently he was not well-educated, as he makes so many illiterate mistakes [2] in public speeches. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker-Peasant-Soldier_student https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker-Peasant-Soldier_stude... [2] https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%B9%E4%B9%A0%E8%BF%91%E5%B9%B3%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%89%E8%AE%AE#%E7%94%A8%E8%AF%8D%E4%BA%89%E8%AE%AE https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%B9%E4%B9%A0%E8%BF%91%...