Hu Jintao, the president of China was a civil engineer. As are many senior government officials.<p>The former president of India from 2002-2007, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was an aeronautical engineer.<p>So is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from Iran.<p>Does it matter that I'd be hard pressed to see an engineer rise to the president in the U.S.? (Then again I would have said that about a black president in 2005)<p>Is there any useful information to extract from the oBservations that China and India have a significant amount of powerful leaders as former engineers?
In China, I think you can look at some interesting historical contingencies which led to more engineers getting into politics. See also, the unique nature of CCP party membership and political life, etc.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghua_clique" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghua_clique</a>
<i>Is there any useful information to extract from the oBservations that China and India have a significant amount of powerful leaders as former engineers?</i><p>Keep engineers out of government unless you want your country to be like India or China?