Want To Have A Successful Career In China? Become A Communist Party Apparatchik

December 24, 2009

Martin McCauley writes: Let me tell you something about China: there’s only a handful of people in the whole country of 1.3 billion people who yield all the political power. And that is why so many governments in the world keep a close eye on the political talent, rising to the top of the Chinese leadership, and the infighting that goes on there.

The current struggle for power is taking place between the Communist Party apparatchiks and technocrats. If the apparatchiks win, it is likely that China’s modernisation will be slowed down. Why? Because the apparatchiks, career Party officials, lack the technical and scientific expertise to resolve the massive challenges involved in ensuring that China competes successfully with America and the rest of the developed world.

The nomenklatura, or government appointees, is dominated by apparatchiks. This is because the Communist Party of China (CPC) seized power in October 1949 and has enforced its monopoly since then. Technocrats are found almost exclusively in the State Council, or the cabinet. Some former ministers were educated abroad and brought much needed expertise to their portfolios.

The Politburo Standing Committee, which rules China, consists of nine members but only one of them is a technocrat: Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister. The Politburo, the second most important institution in China, consists of 25 members but 18 of them are former or present provincial Communist Party bosses.
So is it any wonder that ambitious young people in China choose a career in the Party. This explains the current extraordinary influx of graduates who have been appointed Communist Party secretaries or deputy secretaries at the village and county level. In 2008 alone around 66,000 graduates were appointed to these posts.

Another remarkable trend is the number of young graduates joining the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). This year the PLA has already recruited 130,000 graduates. It appears that many young men and women view military service as a springboard for a future career in the Party.

A glass ‘ceiling’ has been erected for technocrats. Elections to the ruling Standing Committee is now almost exclusively restricted to apparatchiks. The new emphasis on Mao Zedong’s legacy is to promote the rise of the Party faithful. Statues of Mao are appearing everywhere. This is a strange way to prepare for the future – by looking back to a communist leader who died in 1978. He had a limited grasp of economics and stressed willpower over facts. Is this the way to solve China’s economic problems?

The fact that China’s brightest are choosing Party careers instead of heading for industry and commerce is a worrying trend. It is now very rare for a ‘returnee’ or someone who has returned from advanced study and experience in America or Europe to become a government minister. The ‘home grown’ are given preference. Of course, there is a security problem here. It is understandable that in very sensitive positions, those who have studied abroad are not promoted.

The sidelining of technocrats reveals that the CPC is nervous about the future. It is playing safe by promoting its own tried and trusted cadres. It does not take Sherlock Holmes to work out that a life spent honing one’s Mao-quotation skills is not much use when it comes to raising China’s international competitiveness. The Middle Kingdom needs the brightest and the best to become engineers, scientists and managers as never before. Instead, Party officials rule.

The loser in the short and longer term will be China itself.

– End –

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