The right qualifications
In China, much is made of age and experience. The more you have of both, the better.
Chairman Mao ruled into his 80s. Deng Xiaoping only got started as China's leader when he was in his mid-70s. Before China's current leader Hu Jintao took over in 2002, there was some worried discussion here that he might be too young because he was just 60. (He got the job anyway.)
In this country, there's also plenty of reverence for the right qualifications. If you're the health minister, you are expected to be a doctor. If you're the defence minister, you're expected to be pretty good with a gun.
Ideally, you bury yourself away in obscure pursuit of your specialist subject for 30 years, in order to come out the other end as a grizzled, trusted public expert.
So, what was this country to make of a visiting climate change minister from Britain who was just 39 and who wasn't even a scientist? This point clearly intrigued the audience listening to Ed Miliband on Monday morning at Peking University.
After he delivered a speech on climate change, Mr Miliband was twice asked about the fact that he wasn't a scientist or even an environmental expert - he studied politics, philosophy and economics at university.
His answer to the students: "Your basic point about me - that I'm not a scientist - maybe that is one aspect of politics in Britain, which is that people get appointed to jobs where they don't necessarily have expertise. But what do I hope to try and bring to this?... I hope that the skill politicians have - the only skill maybe - is the ability to try and persuade people."
On Mr Miliband's adopted subject of climate change, China will need plenty of persuading.
In December, world leaders will gather in Copenhagen in order to negotiate a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.
China has made it clear that it's willing to co-operate with action to stop global warming. But it insists that as a developing nation, it cannot accept any cap on its emissions. Since China is now reported to be the world's largest carbon emitter, this is a pretty critical point.
After his speech, I sat down with Mr Miliband and I began by asking him whether or not he thought China would agree to cap its emissions:
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Protection of environmental is good thing to do, but still the government should first ensure the economy growth/job opportunities. And start with cleaning up the rivers, decreasing the toxic wastes, enforcing the recycling, and planting trees. The carbon dioxide emission thing should be the last on the list since even the scientists are actually not very sure about the global warming.
If I was in Peking University, I also want to ask this minster some detail questions about climate change since I don't believe he actually understand what he was talking about.
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First time reader of this blog on China. Its intriguing to know what happens within China's borders.
I guess a straightforward explanation would be that, in China, officials don't have to persuade people of their actions' prudence. They just give the orders. This is of course not the case in a democracy. Besides, ministers shouldn't engage in the technical side of things. Its ineffective for them to do so. That's simply not their job. Using a factory as a simile, ministers are administrators and managers, not the workers who fasten screws.
I actually agree that being a developing country with low economic and social infrastructural standards, China should be spared from international pressure when it comes to capping carbon emissions. However, the Chinese Government should recognize it is only in the Chinese people's best interest to provide their people with clean air and water.
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Yes, China is the world's largest carbon emitter but in terms of carbon emission per head, the UK is six times larger than China.
Amd maybe one third of the carbon emission released by China is from the factories producing goods for the western consumers
I cannot see why China wouldn't agree to cap its emissions if the cap is in terms of carbon emission per head
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Dangerous Climate Change + Dangerous Politicians = ?
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China is a meritocratic society while Britain is a democratic society. In Britain those who are politically popular get the job. In China those who are academically superior get the job. I believe that is one of the reasons why the Chinese government makes better policies (on average) than Western governments. Western governments are full of generalists who do nothing but pointless debating and claiming that such things are 'necessary' in a 'democracy'. I find that ridiculous.
If a man lies down in a critical condition and there are ten people around with only one of them being a doctor whose opinion should be taken most seriously? Should we have a vote on what to do? The nine non-specialists may say you need to do X but the doctor may say 'it looks as if you need to do X but in fact that would cause immediate death. You need to do Y'. And because the doctor is a minority X is done and so the person dies... The same can be applied to so many political decisions made in the West. Specialists are few in number and have little say while generalists (politicians) screw up everything and try to talk themselves out of the mess - ALWAYS!
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Milliband should have said something else: that the job of a politician is not to be an expert on the particular subject s/he is supposed to make decision on, but to analyse all the data from experts and make a right POLITICAL decision about the issue. Health secretary doesn't need to be a doctor - s/he needs to listen to doctors, hospital managers etc. and make right political decisions based on that. Experts don't always have a full picture, they often have a narrow perspective, however valuable it is. Politicians are supposed to make sense of experts' views and translate them into right politics and policy.
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It seems to me that Ed Miliband has precisely the right academic qualifications for dealing with climate change. Scientist have already told us what we need to do: reduce CO2 emissions dramatically and start yesterday. Getting the world to do this is not a scientific problem but a political, economic and moral one.
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Put it simple: for government officer in Mainland China, the ability to persuade people is not necessary. The minister do see people in China, and he put it in the political correct way.
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"But what do I hope to try and bring to this?... I hope that the skill politicians have - the only skill maybe - is the ability to try and persuade people." ----- Ed Miliband
This is pricelessly classic! Lucky that Miliband put it in a humble way as PC usually with a "only skill maybe". Otherwise it would be irrogant plus know-nothing, which might risking causing an outright boo from the audience. If Miliband's reasoning were sound, what he would say if another more skilled know-nothing politician happend to believe the contrary and started to argue with him on climate change? Whoops... bad luck.
Mind you that China invented beaurucracy and universal examination system before 100BC to choose officials according to their merits and capabilities. I can't argue how much that has left in the system of today's China. However, a proven specialist for the job, regardless of age, sounds much more credible to me than some 30ers who claim to have "only (persuading) skill maybe ".
A Brit amatuer pop singer, who manages to persuade the judges amongst thousands to win Britain's Got Talent show, must have better persuasion qualification as UK Ambassador to China according to the same logic. You must be with me, James?
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This is true of most Asian cultures where age and experience count a lot. It does strike me strange that ther lack of qualification and experience seems to actually be a plus point in politics. Being a minister is one of the toughest jobs in the world and yet its the one job where ignorance seems to be a virtue !
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A Chinese female nitizen i met once remarked,
"The government need not to feel sorry for its people and they do not expect the same. It doesn't fit well with the political tradition of country."
Well...She might be half right for things in China are undergoing transformations. Environment is one of the major fronts where people's awareness is growing so rapidly, forcing the regime there to heed the will and anger be people so as to assure its own survivability and definitely not out of concern for its people as the female nitizen said.
Back in 2005, even (for the country is notoriously well for playing with numbers) official statistic shown that there were more than 80,000 protests within the country and majority of them were directly or indirectly related to environment. People are now playing important role of environmental 'watchdogs'. Xiamen protest is one of best example in this regard. (You can watch the video clip taken by people from Youtube by doing a simple search).
However, looking at the the official track records concerning environment, so far the authority there had repeatedly failed many ambitious target it set. So i expect little from the communist authority there to make any positive contribution in dealing with a warming world.
The point is that CCP survived with only one credibility and that is the country's economic success. Surely it will not turn off the machines that provided the crucial dollars to reduce CO2 emission.
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That might explain why Britain is going downhill - a bunch of politicians without necessary expertise and experience are governing the country. THANK GOD China doesnt do the same!
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Great article highlighting the thought process behind the two governments. One's full of politicians, the other's full of people with at least a semblance of required skills. It's no wonder China is riding out the economy better than most, whilst Britain under Gordon Brown...well, less said the better
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Preferring that an ex-doctor be your health minister is hardly unreasonable is it? Having been a doctor is hardly an "obscure pursuit of a specialist subject." My understanding of Mr. Miliband's explanation is, simply, that he's a hired gun--willing and able to pursuade people and having that power of pursuasion as his main skill set, regardless of topic and the substantive correctness of the direction of his pursuasion. Give me that "grizzled, trusted public expert" anytime.
Also, RE: emissions, I think we're beating a dead horse as we've been well over this time and again.
1. Per capita, China is extremely low in emissions and consumption of resources. Equal human rights also must mean equal right to resource consumption and, thereby, emission. Entirely unfair to cap China's emissions when Beijing carries the water for 20% of the earth's population.
2. Temporally speaking, the West has well had her time in the sun to pollute at will during an industrial revolution. An explanation of, well, now we know better, is simply too convenient. China must be allowed an equal opportunity to develop as now is her time to do so.
3. Chinese factories turn out goods for Western use. Proper attribution of those emissions to the West must be accounted for in some sort of formulaic manner. Western factories in China must be held equally accountable in a fair manner.
Frankly, what Miliband has to say on the subject is of little interest to me as he, as must be the case, was merely fed climate facts by "grizzled experts" in order so that he may apply his skill set of "persuasion" and, simply, apply the correct "spin" for public consumption.
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This blogpost reminds me of Yes Minister, episode one, scene one...
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Yes, well there are other reasons for a totalitarian Bureaucracy to choose a leader with, shall we say, a limited shelf-life.
Stalin was 44 when he became General Secretary which gave him just over 30 years to play "King Stork". It's small wonder such a conservative culture would prefer to vote for "King Log".
(And there's always the possibility that the Bureacrats jostling for position might have another crack at the Crown, if they vote for a leader that's about to fall off the metaphorical twig..)
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What a shame that the UK continues to allow such representation. An opportunity in presenting a good case for climate change was wasted by an ill-prepared, ill-qualified paper-tiger. One has to wonder where the advisers were, who surely would have predicted such questioning of credentials? This is indeed a dark legacy that we have been left by Blair, and his cronies continue to ruin the UK's global respect.
Enough of these idealistic career politicians and former activists who have little or no experience of reality. Put them back into their think tanks where they can indulge in their political games without risking further damage to the country or its people.
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Diffusing responsibility onto the People of China rather then China's ruling class and the industrialists that make these plants and profits is a neat trick. The Per capita argument might save these popular elitists from blame.
It will be the People of China that will pay when desertification flows down from the Himalayas rather then great rivers.
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At last ! We've heard it from the horse's mouth !
To be a cabinet minister in the UK, you should have no experience of the speciality you are heading up.
No wonder so many crack-pot schemes come out of Westminster. Government ministers are carried away with their own eloquence, even though other nations and the voting public are not.
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Message # 3 - zickyyy
"Yes, China is the world's largest carbon emitter but in terms of carbon emission per head, the UK is six times larger than China."
So in terms of pollution China likes to be ranked per head, but when it comes to the economy it prefers total GDP. Maybe because GDP per head puts China at about the 100th place?
Message # 18 - KrSund70
"Temporally speaking, the West has well had her time in the sun to pollute at will during an industrial revolution. An explanation of, well, now we know better, is simply too convenient. China must be allowed an equal opportunity to develop as now is her time to do so."
By your logic: the West acquired a lot of wealth through slave trade, so China must be allowed to do the same now to catch up.
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The philosophy behind democracy itself in which "people power" is not recognicible in Asian countries (it just not in China, but also it's neighboring countries).
In China, the people still believes that the top authority (not matter about the process), got his mandate from heaven.
From the culture and history of thousand years, the Emperors were carefully chosen by their inner cycle (now the Presidents by the politbireau).
They got their full trust and respect from the people and in returns, they will be doing their best only for the country. The Emperors even praying (in the Temple Of Heaven) for prospherity of their people.
That's way in the Global Warming issue, Global Economic Crises and recently in the Pandemic Swine-flu spread, the Authority were very effectif to tackle the crises. They do not need any politicians to persuaded the people to do what it supposed to do.
Someone depicted in this tiny blog as Parent and Children relationship.
Eventually, this comes from Confusius phylosopy.
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#5 pchen442,
Excellent analogy. Well said.
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All the people above saying that experience in politics is most important, why not be both an expert and a great politician at the same time?
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Those university students asking the question were just out of curiosity. But some people on this forum take it as an offence like Senlin. How funny is that! Making the guest looking bad never falls in the traddition of chinese culture regardless how the guest treated the host badly in the past. Think how beijing Olympic was boycotted and the torch relay was hindered by some nation who doesn't even get a protest at the summer event. It is the capacity that many people in the west should learn to have. Mindlessly advocating "democracy" without showing any substantial merits of it will only tarnish its good name. By setting up the standards, let's see what british goverment will do to reduce the CO2 emmission per capita to the level of, say, china's CO2 emmission per capita at the moment. Otherwise, becoming a politician in britain is so easy by accusing everything is China's fault while doing nothing to its own mess
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I am a public servant and our area does health and epidemiological research, so we have a lot of scientists in our team. Recently we hosted a delegation from China and I was the translator, having both the language skills and the technical knowledge to do this. At lunch, one of the Chinese visitors asked me, "Is [name of my colleague] an expert or a public servant?"
They were pretty amazed when I told them that my colleague is both.
Elected ministers do not need to be experts of their portfolio. This is what departments full of public servants are for. They gather information and analyse it so that ministers and governments can make informed decisions. If that's not what I do, then I don't know why I get my salary.
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Senlin wrote:
It's nice to see that our politicians have the tact and diplomacy to face questions like these. Imagine if the British public were to question a Chinese politician about their suitablitiy for the job. The overseas jingoists on here would be up in arms! How dare you criticise the motherland!
Now..now Senlin, nobody will ask those questions to Chinese politicians coz they do have their background of expertise to back up their positions unlike your politicians. Make you wonder if your politicians can persuade others if they don't even understand what they're talking about. That's why the west lag behind the east today, they only know how to talk. That's what NATO is, No Action Talk Only.
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The air pollution in China is pretty well localized.
I was brought up in a area in the UK among the iron foundries which belched unhealthy chemicals out into the air for years completely unchecked.
I remember the layers of chemicals every day lying on my fathers car which he washed every day so it would not corrode the paint work.
I now live in a part of China where the air is extremely fresh and clean.
Its the first time in my life i have breathed so much fresh air and my health as improved drastically because of this.
Yes China as still long way to go but the western governments are more interesting in suppressing Chinas industrial might then greenhouse gasses.
I think you will find if America leads my example China will follow.
Its a no brainier.
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In conclusion, persuading skill is a 'must' for politicians in a democratic country. It's even better if you are young and handsome. e.g. Mr Obama of USA.
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It is interesting that someone mentioned the universal examination system in ancient China. From what I learned from History class and other materials, at the beginning it do have its good as it replace the worse reference system. But as time passes, say up to Song Dynasty, the examination concentrates on proficiency of literature.
So how about now? Could some people tell us the civil servant examination/ selection system nowadays in China?
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As for products made in Chinese factories for overseas consumers there are two ways to deal with it.
One is to include them in the cap of the home country and then countries that have cap space end up getting subsidized by the rest of the world as factories crop up within their borders. A country that is otherwise clean will be rewarded with economic incentives.
The other way to solve it is to tax the carbon coming from these good. So a man in America buying some clothes from China needs to pay a tax to account for those goods pollution thereby keeping goods in his home country that may not be able to be produced cleanly and cheaply competitive.
The idea that you can simply say "a lot of the carbon China creates is for western consumers" and just hope to sweep the whole problem away is ludicrous.
Look at India, it has almost as many people but 20% the carbon emissions. That discrepancy is larger than between the US and China. Even on a percapita basis, China is no saint.
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There are many young officials at the local level that are eager to promote green solution. Scandisourcing (Shanghai) is working with one such official in Jiangsu(Nanjing) province.
Warren Bock
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When questioned about the Chinese government's appalling human rights record and lack of social justice, some people would tell you individuals should give up "some of their rights" for the "good of the whole nation". Now using the these people's own logic, isn't it the right thing for China to give up "some of their rights" for the "good of the whole world"?
For a government that pays little regard for scientific truths, appointing so-called experts (people with the right qualifications, or, as one of the commenters have said here, those who have passed the right exams like their ancestors did) to the bureaucracy serves no purpose other than fooling people that the government's indeed having the "right" people doing the "right" job.
Medical experts and the WHO have already told everybody that pork is not a means of spreading the swine flu virus, yet this government, with the right experts in their jobs, bans imported pork anyway.
It's been a year since the Sichuan earthquake killed thousands of schoolkids, yet there is still no official figure of how many kids were actually killed released nor is there any proper technical explanation of why schools were particularly vulnerable in this earthquake (people are not encouraged to try to find out themselves either).
Is it that the Chinese government indeed has no regard for science or yes they have their scientists doing their jobs, yet there's still this "Big Brother" looking after everything deciding what needs to be done regardless of what the experts say anyway?
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27.
"So in terms of pollution China likes to be ranked per head, but when it comes to the economy it prefers total GDP. Maybe because GDP per head puts China at about the 100th place?"
No, China always said it was still a relatively poor developing country. It was the western world that was so obssesed with China's rising and kept using total GDP.
43.:
"isn't it the right thing for China to give up "some of their rights" for the "good of the whole world"?"
The problem is not China not willing to give up some of its right for the good of the whole world, but the rich countries, that are enjoying far higher living standards by emitting far more than China, are asking China to give up more than they do!
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dj1979 @ #27:
Yes, China must be allowed equal opportunity to develop.
Your analogy is incorrect for today, the same end result of slavery can be reached without slave labor. A better result even ... so there is no need to pursue the means if the ends or alternative better ends can be reached via another manner.
I've yet to see, however, reliable/sustainable industrial growth at a macro level without some amount of unforunate pollution. If you can show me how the same or or a better alternative end result (i.e. development) is possible without any or with significantly reduced emissions, I am all ears. The West (esp. the US) is hardly able to implement green technologies on its own behalf, let alone implementing them on China's behalf.
Having China make Western goods cheaply by pollutive means for Western consumption is the path of least resistance for Western business, who frankly, couldn't care less about the Chinese environment.
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38. At 04:41am on 06 May 2009, waitinghk wrote:
"It is interesting that someone mentioned the universal examination system in ancient China. From what I learned from History class and other materials, at the beginning it do have its good as it replace the worse reference system. But as time passes, say up to Song Dynasty, the examination concentrates on proficiency of literature.
So how about now? Could some people tell us the civil servant examination/ selection system nowadays in China?"
It's interesting how someone thinks civil servant examination that dates back thousand years has anything to do with "meritocracy". Perhaps some of us think whether a government is good or not comes down to how good civil servants are at passing exams? Or how many top degree certificates they manage to collect?
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Same old story here. The overseas Chinese nationals argue for anything in favour of China (whether they actually agree with it or not). In front of foreigners you defend your government, in front of fellow Chinese you condemn them. All very hypocritical.
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The chinese like to call themselves a developing nation, and in a way (and certainly for millions of chinese) that is indeed true. However, I doubt the rest of the world will continue to accept that label given that the Chinese economy is one of the largest in the world.
Regardless, it's china's right to claim what it claims and say that it won't accept restrictions in regards to the pollution it generates. But once the predicted climate-induced misery starts to hit the globe it needn't be surprised that the fingers will be pointing its way.
In that case it might be the best-case scenario that big climate-induced disasters hit China first (and hard) in order to drive the point home: the system doesn't care who put the pollution in the air or water, the only thing that matters for the system is that the pollution is there, and the only way to solve this thing is if everyone -including China- does what needs to be done.
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China is so old and so are their leaders, over skilled may be and know to much of the bad days.
But worse than China is what's going on in the US where no experience in anything is necessary tobe president and you can be as young as the college kids that voted for you. Obama better do good or they will ask for experience and upgrade the requiremnets for the next wannabe pres.
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@ 43. Heyone
So in one post you are first blasting the chinese government for doing everything in their power to protect their people (from swine flu) and then go on to suggest that the government never act in the interests of its people ie some conspiracy with Sichuan Eq. If I were the government and I was managing such a large population, I wouldnt take the risk and I would do everything as an early prevention.
As for the earthquake. As a structural engineer we know why the buildings failed..its just that no one in the western media wants to broadcast the truth that the buildings were designed correctly to the chinese standards. The reason they failed was because most concrete design standards bar S.A. countries like Chile, Japan do not allow for such a large magnitude earthquake.
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"Put it simple: for government officer in Mainland China, the ability to persuade people is not necessary. "
Not correct at all. At least in China you have to show your capabilities and competence to your boss, and the voters, to get a higher position. So you have to convince others with data and facts that you are the right person and you can do a good job. Convincing dones not mean cheap talking or lip-service.
BTW, maybe the bureaucracy system in China is not so democratic according to UK standard, but neither is it a talk show or a popularity contest. Popular celebrities seldom got high positions in the government in China, but they did in western countries like US and UK.
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One thing going for our politician types other than the ability to persuade is the force of clear thinking. Especially the philosophy types. Their thought processes are usually very clear and concise. Reasoning is impeccable; though they may lack technical details...the overall heuristic remains.
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27. At 4:50pm on 05 May 2009, dj1979 wrote:
By your logic: the West acquired a lot of wealth through slave trade, so China must be allowed to do the same now to catch up.
Not every country has to build their economy the same way my friend. Furthermore your analogy highlights "moral" issue...we're talking about environmentalism here, which is (supposed to be) a science (greenpeace treat it like a religion)...moral analogies don't apply in an economic/scientific context.
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Intriguing, isn't it? We're told that our "democracy" is there to select people to carry out the popular mandate. But no, Mr Miliband believes (and he's far from alone in this) that he's there "to try and persuade people". No, I don't vote for someone to "persuade" me, I vote with the intention that they'll deliver what they promised, within reason. Politicians trying to persuade people delivered us the Iraq debacle and the disastrous neoliberal economic consensus. I'd prefer leaders with an explicit agenda who knew what they were doing - no reflection on Mr Miliband personally, he's doubtless as principled and competent as most and merely speaks with engaging candour for the whole opportunistic rabble.
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The Chinese civil service examinations have varied over the course of the last 2000 years. Originally they were simply to asses a potential civil servant candidates literacy skills. Over time their scope was broaden to include literature, history, law and mathematics as well as skills such as horse riding and archery (a good skill to have if you were to command an army). The character of the exams depended on which dynasty was in power: the Ming, being warlike, favoured assessing candidates martial skills, the Qing, who had to undertake major nation building projects, focused on Confucius teachings (these are the exam systems that westerns are familiar with).
As for how effective the system is a producing a government we can look close to home: the British civil service is based on the Chinese system. Its selection process is defined, and I quote: is based on the principle of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. This is opposed to a democratic system like Republic Rome. In terms of the day-to-day running of the country its a good system. (At least most of the scandals at Westminster tend to involve MPs and the lords rather than civil servants, all through there could be other reasons for this apparent discrepancy).
However, in the UK a democratically elected parliament writes laws, decides the nations foreign policy etc. Maybe we have the best of both worlds(?).
Another quick quibble: Miliband is a foreign secretary and so would not need a science background to do his job well.
As for the environmental issue, the Chinese are aware of the problems. They are the second highest investors in green technology (Germany is the first), they are building more nuclear power stations than anybody else is. The problem is that Chinese also wish to go through the same process that Britain went through over the last 250 years but in a fifth of that time: its gonna hurt.
The ideal solution would be to provide technical information on green technology on the cheap to the Chinese or selling them environmental solutions (which would reduce our trade deficit into the bargain).
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It seems for maybe all developed countries that there is a clear-cut standard on this topic: China should accept the emission cap, because it is corrent. If China refuse, then she is wrong. ... well, you are talking about 'persuade people', but this does not looks like a 'persuasion' at all. In many Chinese forums, people angrily react to the request of 'emission cap' with another suggestion that the cap should be calculated by the consumption of end products, rather than the production process ... You may see, if we so easily set up own standards and demand others to comply, we will soon end up in a deadlock situation which can be good for no one.
Beside openning another finger-pointing war, let's try to think of something more pragmatic. How can we cooperate to achieve some mutual benefit even when we are not totally agree with each other. Politics is a process of compromise, right?
For example, I come from Shanghai, which belongs to south China both in cultural and geographical point of view. Because the climate is mild, traditionally the construction standards do not care about heat preserving. Nowadays, more and more families are using air conditioning devices, thus bringing shockingly high electricity consumption in summer, while a large fraction of energy is lost due to this reason. Therefore, new standards are generally coming into application, which put increasingly strict requests on heat preserving and enviroment-friendly construction materials. As for the immobile market, houses with these features are also becoming very welcomed since more people can afford that, and also have the willingness to do so. It simply means saving in the future and more healthy living for the family.
Especially, European environmental techniques and materials have found a huge demand in China's market. I am studying in Germany, I know that Germany has made a really good business in this area, and they also have very ambitious plan of environmental technique related export to China in the coming decade- tripple the volume is only a conservative estimation. Personally, I am very glad to see this happening, becasue it is a nice deal which brings great profit to both side -- you earn more money, we make our life better, while we both improved the enviroment protection from the global point of view.
Not only the construction, but also many old factories and industrial facilities in China need to be modernized. If you may have a chance to visit Shanghai Expo, please remeber this very site was a huge steel factory several years ago. My old home in Shanghai was just a street away from this pollution monster, who can easily dye almost half sky into a bronze color. Now it has been closed and torn down, its 20 thousand workers (including one of my cousin brother) have been reallcoted to other jobs. But as you know, China's demand on steel will surely increase, thus many new steel factories must be built and current ones extended. Selling modern techniques and equipment is a vast market for Europe. Even for your banks, investment in these projects, in which emission reduction can also be achieved, is far more promising than buying bonds from wall-street.
So if I was the UK minister who is responsible for 'persuading', I will try to persuade people in UK to look more into the good business that Germany has made in the area of environment economy, seeking for chances to make real cooperation with China, rather than wasting time to talk about caps. You may not like what China is now, but you like making money and having good environment. From our side, it is exactly the same.
(Dear Editor, I have removed the part talking about nuclear energy. As for the remaining, I don't think the content has broken any of your house rules.)
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I have been a paediatrician since 1982,I must say that I see things differently now than when I was a young paediatrician 27 years ago.I do agree that a minister in charge of a particular ministry should have experience or be familiar with that field and with age you get to see your objectives clearer.Chinese people tend to see the world differently from westerners.We see the world in the longer run,rather than the immediate future.So for those who are worried about China's carbon emissions,China has had a long history of sufferings whenever environmental disasters struck.They are fully aware of this and understand the need for green technology to survive.They do not need westerners to lecture them.
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Is there anything wrong with persuing an area of specialist to become an expert?
Maybe the Brith people feel otherwise, but I (and most of Chinese I believe) would be much more comfortable with a doctor as the country's health minister.
If Miliband's job is to persuade his audience, then for the Chinese audience I'm afraid they've sent the wrong representative - here we do believe that everybody needs to know what he is talking about in order to convince the others.
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If the comments from the Chinese are right, then the officers in the Chinese government have enough expertise in the specific areas. So, the collapsed schools in Xichuan are not due to man-made mistake according to their investigation, and the parents of the died students should stop complain. That's the end.
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China is a country of 'united' people, since they all support the government, admire the president like what a child admire their parents. So there is no place for political people that have particular strong skills to convince or, 'unite' the people to support the government policy. Isn't it?
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"In China, much is made of age and experience. The more you have of both, the better."
It really depends. In a power organization, you need time and experience to maintain a large number of followers. But in job market,age and experience may be your weakness.
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