predictably gotten caught up in the PRC's drive to create more and more college graduates. Back in the 1950's there was a similar concern about an "engineering gap" with the USSR. Of course all those hydroelectric engineers did the Soviets no good when push came to shove and it was time to land some mook on the moon and bring him back safely.
There is a sturdy myth among both liberals and conservatives that an active middle class intelligensia (which the PRC's education policy is promoting) is somehow a threat to totalitarian political systems. Nothing could be further from the truth, most dictatorships cut their teeth on keeping intellectuals, weak, divided, terrorized and resolutely co-opted.
The number of successful revolutions peaceful or violent led by intellectuals are very few and far inbetween...And the best example of that would be the Bolsheviks in Russia so take it all with a grain of salt sez Humble Elias.
Mostly the recent college grads in China seem to swarm over the landscape looking for jobs equal to their education. Pretty much like the college grads we see around town here in Boston quite frankly. In China almost none of them seem to be plotting and scheming against the regime, they may not like the Politburo, but they are reconciled to it.
Mind you the active participation of middle class intellectuals is vital for the safety and survival of democracy but a large cohort thereof is no great threat to a reasonably organized dictatorship.
My point is, don't look for change as we understand the term in the PRC anytime soon, the army is united, the working class is quiet, no one is starving and the collegians are all out polishing their resumes.
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