Elite transformation and recruitment in post-Mao China

This article examines the changes in elite recruitment criteria and the changing nature of the political bureaucracy in China since the 1980s. A dual career path model is proposed for understanding how the Chinese Communist Party combined expertise and political loyalty to create a new elite to promote development with political stability. Statistical analysis of a 1988 data set on 593 Chinese officials holding leadership positions in the central and provincial governments demonstrates that university education and seniority in party membership increased a cadre's odds of being promoted into the post-Mao leadership. However, the impact of university education on promotion was greater in the government system than in the party hierarchy. The analysis indicates that the current Chinese leadership is an administrative-technical elite resembling its counterparts in the former East European socialist countries.