[mads]

The problem here is that you have provincial level leaders with a 7th grade education who are dictated to up their GDP to a certain number. They know that building something will do the trick and at the same time prop up their personal unofficial finances via bribes and whatnot. So it continues...

[whimsicalism]

Most provincial level leaders in China are likely better educated than their Western counterparts due to strict civil service exam and promotion hierarchy of progressively larger municipal management responsibilities

[Vt71fcAqt7]

What is on that exam? Do you have any source for the average education attainment in provincial China?

[whimsicalism]

https://www.ted.com/talks/eric_x_li_a_tale_of_two_political_...

This talk is definitely propaganda to a degree, but describes the Chinese administrative promotion system.

https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents...

This study indicates that 2/3 of provincial leaders hold advanced degrees. I don’t have the comparative one for the US but I am pretty certain this is not the case for governors.

No source was requested for the claim that they have 7th grade education, I’ll note.