Want China Times
February 10, 2015
A New Year message from Chen Jining featured on Tsinghua University’s website. (Internet photo)
As the Communist Party’s anti-graft probe continues in China, new blood from academia is entering into official circles, according to the Chinese-language Hong Kong Economic Times.
This reflects a new emphasis on professional governance among the senior leadership, according to one analyst cited by Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao, who said that officials with an academic background may become the new norm in the country.
Tsinghua president tapped to head environment ministry
Following the personnel changes in the central ministries and commissions and the local-level People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, as well as the vacancies opened up by the anti-corruption campaign, lots of new blood has entered China’s official circles. Academics-cum-politicians have become a major feature of these personnel changes. On Jan. 28, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced the appointment of president of Tsinghua University Chen Jining as party secretary for the environment ministry, replacing 65-year-old Zhou Shengxian. After the procedure is completed at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) or the full NPC, Chen will likely be formally appointed to minister of the department next month.
The CPC Central Committee Organization Department previously announced that the president of Hefei-based University of Science and Technology of China, Hou Jianguo, has been appointed to vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Before that, Qu Xing, the dean of the China Institute of International Studies, a research body under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was appointed as the Chinese ambassador to Belgium. Guo Guangsheng, the former president of the Beijing University of Technology, was appointed as the deputy party secretary for Beijing, a sub-provincial-level ministerial position.
From top schools to party leadership
There have been a few examples of officials from academic backgrounds over recent years, for example incumbent science and technology minister Wan Gang and minister of education Yuan Guiren were both once university presidents; and Xu Xianming was appointed to deputy director of the office of the Central Commission for Comprehensive Social Management from his previous post as president of Shandong University.
In November of last year, the CPC Central Committee General Office made specific mention of an effort to cultivate officials from academia in its plan for national and party leadership for 2014-2018, which suggests that this may become the new norm for senior appointments.
One political analyst said that the appointment of experts to official posts is part of an effort to create an elite, scientific and professional leadership. Chen Jining and Hou Jianguo are both renowned scholars and the central authorities likely want to use their professional expertise to improve policy efficiency.
Chen, 51, is an authority on the treatment of polluted water; after graduating from Tsinghua University he went to study in the UK, gaining a doctorate from Imperial College London and engaging in research there before returning to his alma mater to teach and has held positions at Tsinghua, including the head of the environmental engineering department, vice president and president. He has also participated in national pollution treatment projects launched by the environment ministry since 2001.
Sources from the upper ranks of the environment ministry said that although China’s environment is becoming increasingly polluted, local governments are unwilling to make moves to curb pollution for fear of hurting GDP growth, so Chen’s appointment has been seen as an attempt to remove the issue from disputes between the central and local government and get everyone to push for pollution treatment in order to restore China’s natural beauty.
Hou, 55, once worked as a researcher at famous overseas institutions, including UC Berkeley and is an authority on chemistry.
Professionalism over cronyism
Another analyst has stated that officialdom in China was previously dominated by people who wanted to make a name for themselves as opposed to more professionally minded officials, which has led to the launch of unscientific policies which have weighed down on efficiency; this is expected to change with the entry of academics to senior government posts.
The director of the document translation department of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau Yang Xuedong has stated that as China develops both socially and economically the leadership of the party will inevitably shift, raising intellectual standards to meet new demands as without well-educated officials effective governance is impossible. Liu Xi, a professor at Renmin University of China’s Public Management School, said that professional standards for government officials are getting higher and higher and that policymaking units should have higher standards still.
A political commentator said that the influx of academics to officialdom in China will also result in a reduction in factionalism and cronyism, given that they will be hired for their professional expertise, rather than their backgrounds or connections.
