"HONG KONG -- Chinese leader Xi Jinping has packed the top ranks of the Communist Party with a new generation of leaders who have experience in aerospace, artificial intelligence and other strategically important areas, as Beijing seeks to become a science and technology superpower that rivals the U.S.
The roster of officials with backgrounds in science and technology on the party's 205-member Central Committee has rebounded to roughly the length it had during former leader Jiang Zemin's first five-year term, beginning in 1992, when he kicked off a rapid acceleration of scientific research and innovation. The increase comes as Washington takes steps both to contain China's tech sector and boost U.S. innovation.
Chinese officials with technical expertise occupy 81 seats, nearly 40% of the total, in the new Central Committee -- the elite body that decides major national policies -- according to data compiled by the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank and shared exclusively with The Wall Street Journal. That compares with less than 18% in the previous Central Committee. The new one was announced last month during a twice-a-decade conclave in Beijing.
On the party's ruling 24-person Politburo, the core of the Central Committee, the number of science- and tech-savvy decision makers rose to eight from two.
For most of its 73 years in power, the Communist Party has wrestled with the value of recruiting elites with technical knowledge, so-called technocrats, as opposed to purely political operators -- the "red vs. expert" debate, as it is known. Though Mr. Xi often draws ideological comparisons with Mao Zedong, who was skeptical of experts, he has repeatedly espoused his belief in the importance of science and technology to bolster China's economic and military might.
"We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth," Mr. Xi said at the recent Communist Party congress.
"Those are not just empty words or an empty goal," says Cheng Li, director of the China Center at Brookings, who compiled and analyzed the data. "He deliberately promoted leaders from that area to enter the Chinese leadership."
Under Mr. Xi's predecessor, Hu Jintao, several top leaders had engineering backgrounds, but the party's lower ranks were thin on such experience. This left few candidates available in subsequent years to promote to more influential positions in the central government. Those roles went instead to leaders with training in economics and social sciences.
The new wave of appointments came a month after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced the U.S.'s own strategic shift to start maintaining "as large of a lead as possible" over competitors such as China in foundational technologies. In October, the U.S. Commerce Department released sweeping export controls to throttle China's ability to make and access advanced chips, one of Beijing's self-identified chokepoints critical to a swath of its economic and military ambitions.
Many of the new technocrats in the Central Committee come from emerging industries that Beijing has identified as strategic priorities, including semiconductors, environmental science and biotechnology.
Brookings counted only individuals who earned a degree in science or engineering and subsequently practiced in the field. It didn't include those who specialized in economics and finance.
Aerospace experts lead with 20 seats. Their dominance highlights the importance Mr. Xi places on the industry's role in Beijing's civil-military fusion strategy and as a source of national pride, Mr. Li says.
The sudden jump in science and technology experts is abetted in part by the changing makeup of China's political elite. Most senior officials under Mr. Hu had come of age during the Cultural Revolution and so were denied educational opportunities, said Ruihan Huang, a research associate at Chicago-based think tank MacroPolo." [1]
Lithuania's elite fills our government with shitocracy: shit that is Grandchildren of the elite. In the drastic changes of our time, this is the beginning of a catastrophe. This why anybody who is able to work is running from Lithuania as soon as possible.
1. World News: Xi Fills Government With Science, Tech Experts to Battle U.S.
Hao, Karen.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 19 Nov 2022: A.13.
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