6 ms·

Many high-ranking Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping (Chemical Engineering) and his predecessors like Hu Jintao (Hydraulic Engineering) and Jiang Zemin (El

by dtquad 2y ago

Many high-ranking Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping (Chemical Engineering) and his predecessors like Hu Jintao (Hydraulic Engineering) and Jiang Zemin (Electrical Engineering), are trained engineers. They also like economics and finance people. Premier Li Keqiang has a PhD in Economics from Peking University. Zhu Rongji, a former premier, had a strong economics and mathematics background. I am not a fan of American techno-libertarianism nor the Chinese CCP but Europe needs more engineers and economists (from math heavy programs) in politics.

masterclef 2y ago
[flagged]
- geraltofrivia 2y ago
  Not a comment on your overall statement but I want to point out the irony of mentioning Trump and Musk in a positive light and nepotism in a negative one.
  - masterclef 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - xav0989 2y ago
      But naming your kids to positions of power because they’re your kids is nepotism.
      - IMTDb 2y ago
        That’s exactly how it works in my Western Europe country. Bonus point if said child is using his mother political ties to organise an international drug smuggling ring.
        masterclef 2y ago
        [flagged]
- whatever1 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - dang 2y ago
    "Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead." a.k.a. please don't feed the trolls https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- brazzy 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - asimpletune 2y ago
    I am European and American and have lived on both continents. They’re both nice places but in different ways. We shouldn’t be speaking so coarsely to each other, if for nothing else than it’s simply bad rhetoric if you care to make a point. On the other hand at best we should choose kindness because civilization depends on it. Nations are just useful fictions but the facts that can never go away are the people that inhabit them. So I strongly urge anyone reading this to reconsider what kind of person they want to be before responding to rudeness with rudeness.
    - uni_rule 2y ago
      If it's any consolation I'm just American and I believe Trump is an incontinent rubber stamp for any brown-noser that orbits him and Elon deserves to be unceremoniously gored with a brick.
  - dang 2y ago
    Nationalistic flamewar will get you banned here, regardless of how badly other commenters are behaving. No more of this, please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- watwut 2y ago
  Remember Trump giving positions to all of his own family? That is textbook nepotism. It is hard to find that level of nepotism in any other western country.
  - uni_rule 2y ago
    Well there is England...
- dang 2y ago
  We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - masterclef 2y ago
    [dead]
jimmydoe 2y ago
Not to challenge your conclusion but you might want to examine your examples carefully. AFAIK Xi Jinping is widely believed to be close to illiterate…
- sudosysgen 2y ago
  The idea that Xi is functionally illiterate beggars belief and is clearly false. It's not impossible his actual Chemical Engineering education was of low quality, but to say he is close to illiterate is actually silly.
  - DanielHB 2y ago
    Also have you seen the people coming out of majors these days (and by that I mean my own graduation class of ~2010)? Uni access expanded so much that just graduating doesn't mean that much anymore. Especially for career government officials who probably went straight into government from uni with no work experience.
  - energy123 2y ago
    Xi got into Tsinghua not due to intellectual ability, but due to his political connections with the CCP. This isn't the meritocratic or technocratic story one might have assumed to be the case reading the above comment. China is ultimately a poor country on a per-capita basis and essentially a failure when compared to countries with a similar culture and historical circumstance like Taiwan. It's only their massive size that leads people to the faulty conclusion that they have anything worth emulating.
    - sudosysgen 2y ago
      I'm fully willing to accept that he got into Tsinghua from connections, and at the time I'm sure there was mass instability and on top of it I'm sure he would have been able to avoid coursework if he wanted to, leading to the real possibility of low quality education. That's still far away from being almost illiterate.
- saturn8601 2y ago

by dtquad 2y ago

masterclef 2y ago

[flagged]

geraltofrivia 2y ago
Not a comment on your overall statement but I want to point out the irony of mentioning Trump and Musk in a positive light and nepotism in a negative one.
- masterclef 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - xav0989 2y ago
    But naming your kids to positions of power because they’re your kids is nepotism.
    - IMTDb 2y ago
      That’s exactly how it works in my Western Europe country. Bonus point if said child is using his mother political ties to organise an international drug smuggling ring.
      - masterclef 2y ago
        [flagged]
whatever1 2y ago
[flagged]
- dang 2y ago
  "Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead." a.k.a. please don't feed the trolls https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
brazzy 2y ago
[flagged]
- asimpletune 2y ago
  I am European and American and have lived on both continents. They’re both nice places but in different ways. We shouldn’t be speaking so coarsely to each other, if for nothing else than it’s simply bad rhetoric if you care to make a point. On the other hand at best we should choose kindness because civilization depends on it. Nations are just useful fictions but the facts that can never go away are the people that inhabit them. So I strongly urge anyone reading this to reconsider what kind of person they want to be before responding to rudeness with rudeness.
  - uni_rule 2y ago
    If it's any consolation I'm just American and I believe Trump is an incontinent rubber stamp for any brown-noser that orbits him and Elon deserves to be unceremoniously gored with a brick.
- dang 2y ago
  Nationalistic flamewar will get you banned here, regardless of how badly other commenters are behaving. No more of this, please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
watwut 2y ago
Remember Trump giving positions to all of his own family? That is textbook nepotism. It is hard to find that level of nepotism in any other western country.
- uni_rule 2y ago
  Well there is England...
dang 2y ago
We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- masterclef 2y ago
  [dead]

jimmydoe 2y ago

Not to challenge your conclusion but you might want to examine your examples carefully. AFAIK Xi Jinping is widely believed to be close to illiterate…

sudosysgen 2y ago
The idea that Xi is functionally illiterate beggars belief and is clearly false. It's not impossible his actual Chemical Engineering education was of low quality, but to say he is close to illiterate is actually silly.
- DanielHB 2y ago
  Also have you seen the people coming out of majors these days (and by that I mean my own graduation class of ~2010)? Uni access expanded so much that just graduating doesn't mean that much anymore. Especially for career government officials who probably went straight into government from uni with no work experience.
- energy123 2y ago
  Xi got into Tsinghua not due to intellectual ability, but due to his political connections with the CCP. This isn't the meritocratic or technocratic story one might have assumed to be the case reading the above comment. China is ultimately a poor country on a per-capita basis and essentially a failure when compared to countries with a similar culture and historical circumstance like Taiwan. It's only their massive size that leads people to the faulty conclusion that they have anything worth emulating.
  - sudosysgen 2y ago
    I'm fully willing to accept that he got into Tsinghua from connections, and at the time I'm sure there was mass instability and on top of it I'm sure he would have been able to avoid coursework if he wanted to, leading to the real possibility of low quality education. That's still far away from being almost illiterate.
saturn8601 2y ago