The Lawyer's Are Taking Over China's Government

China's old guard—engineers like Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, and revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping—is giving way to a new breed of Communist Party tech-nocrat. Reuters-Landov

Right Brain -- Newsweek

In a trend that will change the country, leadership of China's Communist Party is slowly passing from functionaries trained in engineering to those educated in softer sciences like law.

In the beginning there were firebrand revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Then came the engineers. China's post-Mao leadership has been dominated by engineers of varying stripes. Party chief (and President) Hu Jintao trained in hydraulic engineering, and Premier Wen Jiabao studied geomechanics, for example. Apparatchiks like them account for eight of the nine members of the Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, a trend replicated throughout the lower ranks, too. But times are changing. An analysis of younger rising stars in the party's leadership firmament reveals that cadres trained in the "soft sciences"—especially law—are quickly catching up as leaders realize they need a broad range of skills to govern. Is it the kind of change that could finally render the kinder, gentler face the government has been seeking for so many years?

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My Comment: Contract law, the rule of law .... these are all important and essential ingredients for China if it wants to be an economic super power in the 21rst century. They know it .... and are quickly going that route .... but with a Chinese cultural aspect to it.

On a side note. When I lived in China in 1988, no one understood my lawyer or Newfie jokes. Today .... they still do not understand my Newfie jokes, but they sure as hell understand my lawyer jokes.