China’s Xi Stacks Government With Science and Tech Experts Amid Rivalry With U.S.


在中国力争成为能匹敌美国的科技超级大国之际，中国领导人习近平提拔了大批在航空航天、人工智能和其他具有战略重要性领域具备经验的官员进入中共新一届最高领导层。


“必须坚持科技是第一生产力，人才是第一资源，创新是第一动力，”习近平在上个月的中共二十大上表示。

在中国力争成为能匹敌美国的科技超级大国之际，中国领导人习近平提拔了大批在航空航天、人工智能和其他具有战略重要性领域具备经验的官员进入中共新一届最高领导层。 6park.com
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has packed the top ranks of the Communist Party with a new generation of leaders who have experience in aerospace, artificial intelligence and other strategically important areas, as Beijing seeks to become a science and technology superpower that rivals the U.S. 6park.com
  
在205名成员的中共中央委员会中，具有科学和技术背景的官员人数已回升到与前领导人江泽民第一个五年任期期间大致相当的水平。江泽民1992年开始第一个五年任期，当时他实施了推动科研和创新加速发展的举措。这一人数回升的背景是，美国政府近来采取了一些遏制中国科技行业、并促进美国创新的举措。 6park.com
The roster of officials with backgrounds in science and technology on the party’s 205-member Central Committee has rebounded to roughly the length it had during former leader Jiang Zemin’s first five-year term, beginning in 1992, when he kicked off a rapid acceleration of scientific research and innovation. The increase comes as Washington takes steps both to contain China’s tech sector and boost U.S. innovation. 6park.com
  
根据总部位于华盛顿的智库布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)汇集并与《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)独家分享的数据，在新一届中共中央委员会中，具有技术专长的中国官员有81名，占比近40%。该委员会是决定重大国家政策的精英机构，新一届委员名单是在上个月于北京召开的中共二十大期间宣布的。在前一届中共中央委员会中，这类官员的占比不到18%。 6park.com
Chinese officials with technical expertise occupy 81 seats, nearly 40% of the total, in the new Central Committee—the elite body that decides major national policies—according to data compiled by the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank and shared exclusively with The Wall Street Journal. That compares with less than 18% in the previous Central Committee. The new one was announced last month during a twice-a-decade conclave in Beijing. 6park.com
  
在由24人组成的中共中央政治局中，具有科学和技术背景的决策者人数从两人增至八人。中共中央政治局是中共中央委员会的核心机构。 6park.com
On the party’s ruling 24-person Politburo, the core of the Central Committee, the number of science- and tech-savvy decision makers rose to eight from two. 6park.com
  
在执政73年的大部分时间里，中共一直在努力解决“红与专”之争的问题，即是否应该招募具有技术知识的精英，即所谓的技术官僚，而不是纯粹搞政治的人士。尽管习近平在意识形态方面经常被外界与毛泽东相提并论，但不同的是，毛泽东对技术精英持怀疑态度，而习近平一再坚信科学技术对于增强中国经济和军事实力的重要性。 6park.com
For most of its 73 years in power, the Communist Party has wrestled with the value of recruiting elites with technical knowledge, so-called technocrats, as opposed to purely political operators—the “red vs. expert” debate, as it’s known. Though Mr. Xi often draws ideological comparisons with Mao Zedong, who was skeptical of experts, he has repeatedly espoused his belief in the importance of science and technology to bolster China’s economic and military might. 6park.com
  
“必须坚持科技是第一生产力，人才是第一资源，创新是第一动力，”习近平在上个月的中共二十大上表示。 6park.com
“We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth,” Mr. Xi said at the recent Communist Party congress. 6park.com
  
汇集和分析这些数据的布鲁金斯学会中国中心主任李成说，这些不仅仅是空话或空洞的目标，习近平有意提拔技术精英进入中国领导层。 6park.com
“Those are not just empty words or an empty goal,” says Cheng Li, director of the China Center at Brookings, who compiled and analyzed the data. “He deliberately promoted leaders from that area to enter the Chinese leadership.”



在习近平的前任胡锦涛任内，几位最高领导人都有工程背景，但级别低一些的中共官员很少有这方面的经验。这使得在接下来的几年里，几乎没有候选人可以提拔到中央政府中更有影响力的职位。这些职位后来由曾在经济学和社会科学方面进修过的领导人担任。 6park.com
Under Mr. Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, several top leaders had engineering backgrounds, but the party’s lower ranks were thin on such experience. This left few candidates available in subsequent years to promote to more influential positions in the central government. Those roles went instead to leaders with training in economics and social sciences. 6park.com
  
在中国新一轮高层调整一个月前，美国国家安全顾问沙利文(Jake Sullivan)宣布美国自己的战略转变，即开始在基础技术领域保持对中国等竞争对手的“尽可能大的优势”。10月，美国商务部公布了全面的出口管制，以限制中国制造和获取先进制程芯片的能力。这是中国自认的瓶颈之一，对其广泛的经济和军事雄心至关重要。 6park.com
The new wave of appointments came a month after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced the U.S.’s own strategic shift to start maintaining “as large of a lead as possible” over competitors like China in foundational technologies. In October, the U.S. Commerce Department released sweeping export controls to throttle China’s ability to make and access advanced chips, one of Beijing’s self-identified chokepoints critical to a wide swath of its economic and military ambitions. 6park.com
  
中共中央委员会的不少新晋技术官僚来自被中国政府确定为战略重点的新兴领域，包括半导体、环境科学和生物科技。布鲁金斯学会只统计了这些官员中曾获得科学或工程学位且之后曾在相关领域从业的人士，没有包括那些曾专注经济和金融领域的人。 6park.com
Many of the new technocrats in the Central Committee come from emerging industries that Beijing has identified as strategic priorities, including semiconductors, environmental science and biotechnology. Brookings counted only individuals who earned a degree in science or engineering and subsequently practiced in the field. It didn’t include those who specialized in economics and finance. 6park.com
  
中央委员会中，航空航天技术官僚以20席领先，他们在中国政治圈有时被称为“航天系”或“宇宙帮”。布鲁金斯学会的李成说，他们的地位凸显出习近平对航空航天业所扮演角色的重视，包括该行业对于中国政府军民融合战略的重要作用，以及其作为民族自豪感来源的角色。 6park.com
Aerospace experts lead with 20 seats, forming what is sometimes known as the “aerospace clique” or “cosmos club” in Chinese politics. Their dominance highlights the importance Mr. Xi places on the industry’s role in Beijing’s civil-military fusion strategy and as a source of national pride, Brookings’ Mr. Li says. 6park.com
  
研究中国经济的芝加哥智库MacroPolo的助理研究员Ruihan Huang表示，鉴于中国航空航天业的成功，这些专家在管理大型团队和复杂项目方面也表现出“无可挑剔的资质”，这些能力是国家和省级治理不可或缺的。 6park.com
Given the success of China’s aerospace industry, such experts have also demonstrated “impeccable credentials” for managing large teams and complex projects, skills integral to overseeing national and provincial governance, according to Ruihan Huang, a research associate at MacroPolo, a Chicago-based think tank at the Paulson Institute that studies China’s economy. 6park.com
  
科学技术专家地位的跃升在一定程度上得益于中国政治精英的构成变化。Huang说，胡锦涛手下的多数高级官员都成长于文革期间，被剥夺了受教育的机会。他在5月份发布的一份报告中分析了中国省级领导人的履历。 6park.com
The sudden jump in science and technology experts is abetted in part by the changing makeup of China’s political elite. Most senior officials under Mr. Hu had come of age during the Cultural Revolution and so were denied educational opportunities, said Mr. Huang, who analyzed the backgrounds of provincial leaders in a report released in May. 6park.com
 
根据布鲁金斯学会的分析，相比之下，现在被提拔的这一代专家大部分都受过高等教育，拥有丰富的研究或行业经验。李成表示，其中许多人都拥有研究生或博士学位，曾在海外学习，并管理过大学或跨国公司，包括一些在《财富》(Fortune)杂志世界500强企业名单的公司。 6park.com
By contrast, the generation of experts now being promoted is highly educated and boasts extensive research or industry experience, according to the Brookings analysis. Many earned graduate and doctoral degrees, studied abroad and ran universities or multinational companies, including some listed among the Fortune 500, Mr. Li said. 6park.com
  
根据布鲁金斯学会的定义，本届政治局七位常委中只有一人是技术官僚。作为习近平政治拥护者的丁薛祥兼具材料研究和政府管理经验，政治风险咨询机构Future Risk的研究主任Tristan Kenderdine表示， 丁薛祥有时被视为守旧派元老和新晋技术派精英之间的桥梁。 6park.com
Only one member of China’s ruling seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is a technocrat by Brookings’ definition. Ding Xuexiang, a political protégé of Mr. Xi who split his career between materials research and government administration, is sometimes seen as a bridge between the old-guard bureaucrats and the newer technocratic elite, according to Tristan Kenderdine, research director at political-risk consulting firm Future Risk.


许达哲、丁薛祥和尹力。

在中央政治局中，技术专家在背景方面拥有更多新兴一代的特征。 6park.com
One rung below, in the Politburo, the technology experts have backgrounds more characteristic of the up-and-coming generation. 6park.com
  
“宇宙帮”成员、被视为习近平另一名亲信的马兴瑞在航空航天领域有25年工作经验，曾在大学行政部门、一家国有航空航天承包商以及包括中国国家航天局在内的多个政府机构中担任领导职务。他还担任过几次太空任务的总指挥，包括中国第一次月球表面探测。 6park.com
Ma Xingrui, a member of the “cosmos club” seen as another Xi protégé, had a 25-year career in aerospace that included leadership roles across university administrations, a state-owned aerospace contractor and government agencies including China’s National Space Administration. He was also chief commander of several space missions, including China’s first for lunar surface exploration. 6park.com
  
2013年，马兴瑞进入政府工作，一路晋升至作为中国经济引擎之一的广东省的省长，并由此进入中央委员会。2021年，马兴瑞被调到管理难度较高的西北地区新疆担任党委书记，据中国观察人士称，这体现了中国政府对他能力的巨大信任。今年10月，马兴瑞被提升为中央政治局委员。 6park.com
In 2013, he entered government, working his way up to governor of the southern province of Guangdong, one of China’s economic engines, which elevated him to the Central Committee. In 2021, he was transferred to the fractious northwestern region of Xinjiang to serve as party secretary—a sign of Beijing’s significant trust in his capabilities, China watchers say. In October, he was promoted to the Politburo. 6park.com
  
尹力是中央政治局的另一位新成员，他是一位在国际上受人尊敬的公共卫生专家，担任过世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)执委会副主席，并且曾以访问学者身份赴哈佛大学(Harvard University)进修。在中国卫生部任职期间，他于2003年参与制定了中国应对非典型肺炎(SARS)危机的措施。 6park.com
Yin Li, another new addition to the Politburo, is an internationally respected public-health expert who served as a vice chairman of the World Health Organization and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. At China’s Ministry of Health, he helped shape the country’s response to the SARS crisis in 2003.


上个月的党代会上公布了包括大量技术官员在内的中共中央委员会名单。

尹力2015年进入政府任职，之后迅速一路晋升至四川省省长，并当选中央委员会委员。尹力2020年被任命为福建省党委书记，福建是习近平的权力基础所在地之一。周日，尹力被任命为北京市委书记，中国观察人士预计，他的专业知识将在疫情管理和北京的最终重新开放中发挥重要作用。 6park.com
Dr. Yin entered government in 2015, swiftly rising to become governor of Sichuan province and gain a seat on the Central Committee. In 2020, he was named party boss of the southeastern province of Fujian, one of Mr. Xi’s power bases. On Sunday, he was named municipal party chief in Beijing, where China watchers expect his expertise to play an important role in management of Covid-19 and the eventual reopening of the capital city. 6park.com
  
科技专家在省级政府中也得到提拔，这预示他们的影响力将继续增强。MacroPolo的Huang表示，初步分析发现，许多省级专家分配到产业符合其专长的省份，这可能改善高科技产业的管理并强化这些产业的发展。 6park.com
Experts in science and technology are also being promoted in provincial governments, a sign that their influence will continue to grow. A preliminary MacroPolo analysis found that many provincial-level experts are matched with the province whose industries fit their expertise, which could improve management of high-tech industries and strengthen their development, MacroPolo’s Mr. Huang said. 6park.com
  
例如，航空航天业资深人士许达哲2016年至2021年在湖南省担任政府要职，而湖南省是一个重要的航空航天研究中心，帮助开发了中国自主研发的北斗卫星导航系统，以替代美国的全球定位系统。Huang指出，许达哲在任期内增加了对北斗系统的投资，并通过与国有航空航天公司合作扩大了当地工业基础。 6park.com
Aerospace-industry veteran Xu Dazhe, for example, held key government roles from 2016 to 2021 in Hunan province, a major center of aerospace research that helped develop the Beidou Satellite Navigation System, China’s homegrown alternative to the U.S. Global Positioning System. During his tenure, Mr. Xu intensified investment in Beidou and expanded the local industrial base through partnerships with state-owned aerospace companies, Mr. Huang says. 6park.com
  
许达哲于去年退休，另一位航空航天业资深人士张庆伟接任湖南省委书记。张庆伟之前担任商用飞机制造中心黑龙江省的省委书记。许达哲之前曾任中央委员会委员，张庆伟目前仍是中央委员会委员。 6park.com
Upon his retirement last year, Mr. Xu was succeeded as Hunan party secretary by another aerospace-industry veteran, Zhang Qingwei, former party secretary of Heilongjiang province, a manufacturing hub for commercial aircraft. Mr. Xu served on the Central Committee, and Mr. Zhang remains a member. 6park.com