How China Became a Nation of Engineers

China has become a nation led by engineers, a stark contrast to its historical suspicion of technical expertise. This transformation is rooted in a complex history of political ideology and pragmatic policy shifts.

Initially, during the Cultural Revolution, technocracy was condemned as "engineer dictatorship." Figures like scientist Qian Weichang faced repercussions for advocating for expert leadership. However, paradoxically, Mao Zedong's 1958 call to "be both red and expert" ( ⼜紅⼜專) sowed the seeds for this change. While Mao's intent was to prevent specialists from ignoring politics and to have cadres supervise experts, his ideal was to dissolve the monopoly of knowledge and governance by the masses. This slogan was later twisted by Tsinghua University president Zhang Nanhsian into a framework for cultivating elite talent, creating a system where academically strong students were groomed for political work.

The Cultural Revolution in 1966 dealt a severe blow to this emerging technocratic elite. Radical factions argued that cadres embodying "red and expert" were a "new bourgeoisie." Professors were exiled, and Tsinghua was taken over by worker propaganda teams. Admission to universities became based on recommendation and manual labor experience, a path that eventually led Xi Jinping to Tsinghua's chemical engineering department.

After Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping's reforms shifted the emphasis. "Expertise is necessary for leadership," Deng declared, transforming the "red and expert" ideal from a mass movement into a prerequisite for governance. The system of hereditary class status was abolished, and by the early 1980s, hundreds of thousands of college-educated cadres entered leadership positions. By 2002, 99% of the Central Committee members were university graduates, with eight out of nine Politburo Standing Committee members being engineers. Zhang Nanhsian's prophecy of a Tsinghua graduate becoming premier was realized when Zhu Rongji, an electrical engineering alumnus, took office.

This transition from a nation of workers, peasants, and revolutionaries to one of engineers loyal to the party was not a seamless plan but an unintended consequence of the failure of utopian ideals. The Cultural Revolution's attack on intellectuals and cadres created a unique bond between academic and political power. The post-Mao ruling class, forged in shared persecution, became a technocratic elite unbound by checks and balances. The 1989 Tiananmen Square events further accelerated this technocratic shift, sidelining the potential for integrating "science" and "democracy." Today, in an era of US-China technological competition, Beijing continues to elevate engineers to key positions, with young scientists hailed as national heroes, signifying the ongoing renewal of China as a nation of engineers, driven by the abandonment of radical egalitarianism and the persistence of authoritarian politics that bypass democratic debate.