ABSTRACT
The search for national competitiveness, the challenges of operating in a global economy, the dilemmas of elite recruitment, the overall extractive capabilities of the state, the stresses of uneven economic development and the forestalling of both a crisis of participation and a crisis of expectation from newly emerging classes are difficult roads for any nation successfully to navigate. For post-Dengist China, the conflicts between and among the expectations of newly emerging interest groups whose loyalty to socialist goals are suspect, the requirements of national unity and the goals of economic competitiveness place a strain on almost every sector. The abandonment of a Maoist model of economic development and the embracing of an amorphous market-socialist paradigm has created an urgent need for the People's Republic of China to find and train people of talent which may enable it to fulfil a role as both a major regional player as well as an integrated and powerful member of the international system.
