China’s Xi Stacks Government With Science and Tech Experts Amid Rivalry With U.S.

Number of people with backgrounds in strategically important areas among the Communist Party elite has more than doubled

Ruihan Huang as featured on The Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG—Chinese leader Xi Jinping has packed the top ranks of the Communist Party with a new generation of leaders who have experience in aerospace, artificial intelligence, and other strategically important areas, as Beijing seeks to become a science and technology superpower that rivals the U.S.

The roster of officials with backgrounds in science and technology on the party’s 205-member Central Committee has rebounded to roughly the length it had during former leader Jiang Zemin’s first five-year term, beginning in 1992.