HONG KONG — Oh, what a difference a few decades make! Back in the days of Chairman Mao Zedong and his little red book, China was proud to proclaim the Communist Party as the party of workers, peasants and soldiers.
And now? Two of the new members of the standing committee of the Politburo, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, who are expected to take over the jobs of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in five years' time, both have doctorates.
While the standing committee of nine men elected in 2002 consisted only of engineers, Xi and Li are delightfully different. Xi is an economist and Li has a Ph.D. in law.
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