Comment by thaumasiotes
3 years ago
> You don't intentionally design peerage into a system of government.
Says who?
From Red Roulette:
> The struggle pitted Xi Jinping against an official named Bo Xilai. Both were sons of Communist "immortals", veterans of Mao's revolution. And both owed their careers to a Party decision made in 1981 and pushed by a high-ranking Communist named Chen Yun to establish a special office in the Party's personnel department called the Young Cadres Section. That section's purpose was to ensure that the sons and daughters of senior Party members were given good positions in the government and the Party. "If our sons and daughters succeed us," Chen Yun declared, "they won't dig up our graves."
> The Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989 gave this work added urgency. A key lesson that the red aristocracy drew from that turmoil was that, as the saying went, "you can best depend on your own kids." Each leading family chose an heir to be groomed for political leadership. Nominated by their fathers, Xi and Bo rose through the Party ranks.
No comments yet
Contribute on Hacker News ↗