James Kynge

but is in fact anything but egalitarian.

This is, as you said, Alice, this is brutally competitive.

It is the very antithesis of egalitarianism.

What happens in this process is that the authorities skim off the very brightest kids.

And then they put them in a class with other super bright kids.

And then they skim that cohort again until at the end of this process, you end up with a few classes in the very best universities full of trapezoids.

truly genius-level talent.

And these genius-level talent, as you've said, Alice, they all, well, most of them anyway, go on to lead some of China's extraordinary technological advances.

And I think this program says a lot about what China is all about.

It says a lot about what China prioritizes, what drives its people, what society is all about, and it reveals a crucial motivator for

of China's extraordinary success.

When I lived in Beijing, we had a family friend, and she lived in what's called the Hutong area of Beijing.

Those are the old alleyways that sort of cluster around the Forbidden City in the center of Beijing.

And families live kind of cheek by jowl.

It's not a wealthy area.

These were not wealthy people.

But the son of our family friend, he was a truly clever boy.

And at the age of 11, he was skimmed off to go into one of these genius classes.

And what I remember so particularly is the fact that everybody on his street, I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of people, knew this news.

And every time he walked down the street to go home and have his tea,