In late 2012 the BBC ran in parallel two stories of major significance: the American presidential election and the emergence of the new Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. In that the United States and China can be considered the two most powerful countries in the world, the juxtaposition was justified. More controversial was the equating of two political systems with vastly divergent ways of choosing their leadership. An American presidential candidate wins office after prolonged exposure to the public through a series of primary elections. The choice of a Chinese president is the result of opaque machinations within a very restricted elite. The seven members of the new Standing Committee who took centre-stage in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on