A study from Tsinghua University indicates that college graduates with family ties to government officials appear to enjoy advantages in the workplace. From Beijing Evening News, via Global Times:
Researchers found that graduates with officials in their family can earn 15 percent more at their first job out of college than others with the same academic abilities, the Beijing Evening News reported on Monday.
Li Hongbin, a professor with the Department of Economics at Tsinghua University who took part in the research, told the media that they came to the conclusion by comparing and analyzing a career survey done by the university in 2010 that sampled 6,059 students from 11 provinces throughout China.
[…] Li pointed out that the results echo public concerns over the abuse of power by government officials and reflect fears that corruption is rampant and that the powerful are using their positions for personal gain. [Source]
Coincidentally, Guangdong-based financial magazine New Fortune reported this week that Mao Zedong’s granddaughter now ranks among the country’s wealthiest 500. From Patrick Boehler at South China Morning Post:
Kong Dongmei, the granddaughter of the founder of the People’s Republic and his third wife He Zizhen, along with her husband Chen Dongsheng have the combined wealth of five billion yuan (HK$6.3 billion), putting them at number 242 in the annual rankingby the Guangdong-based New Fortune magazine.
[…] Chen is the founder of China’s first national auction house Guardian and the country’s fourth largest insurance house Taikang.
“The House of Mao will never engage in business,” Mao’s only known grandson Mao Xinyu, a major general in the People’s Liberation Army, reportedly pledged, perhaps to avoid suspicion of exploiting the illustrious ancestor for personal gain. [Source]
China’s richest man, though, is no princeling. As Boehler notes, beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou started out as a salt harvester.
