China: A Meritocracy of Mediocrity?
With the recent handover of power to a new Politburo Standing Committee, a debate has broken out between China watchers over what to term the method through which China chooses its new leaders. In the corner arguing for “meritocracy” are Daniel Bell and Zhang Weiwei, who have recently wri ...
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The Party-state’s system is based on patron-client relations and family networks among the Party elite. It is hardly a so-called meritocracy. If the Party were to allow the populace to vote for the nation’s top leaders like every other country in the G-20 except for Saudi Arabia and China, then I might start taking this loose talk about meritocracy more seriously.