Seen on hacker news:

http://singularityhub.com/2011/05/17/eight-out-of-chinas-top-nine-government-officials-are-scientists/

Money quote:

"You have to be pretty popular to get elected, so should we conclude that Chinese people in general look up to and admire their scientists?"

Obvious response: "They weren't elected".

Yes they were. PLease note chinese prepends an "s" to all leading vowels.

The Soviet Union had a similarly high proportion of scientists as political leaders.

>What does the scientific prominence atop China’s ruling body say, if
>anything, about the role of science and technology in China’s ability
>to compete against the U.S. and the world in terms of innovation and
>economic might?

Yep, some people used to say exactly the same thing about the Soviet Union. Look at what happened to them.

Well, I guess they helped create Google (Sergey was born to Scientist parents in Moscow), but how much good did it do them?

So I guess the next Google will be started by a Beijing born Chinese immigrant.... in Silicon Valley.

See, the Godless commies worship brains above all else. The takeaway is that the harsh totalitarians are a bunch of "mentates".

Conversely, this explains someone like Sarah Palin's popularity very well.

Old chinese custom.

>The less prestigious exams were those that were held to exam candidates in law, calligraphy, state ritual and military skills.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/ls201/confucian3.html