The China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong (CELAP) is a school located in Pudong, Shanghai, directly under the Central Committee of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP). It is managed by the party's Central Organization Department, with assistance from the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CCP.

Name

The official English name of the school is the "China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong". It is also the name used by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Richard McGregor said that the word " cadre" has

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

connotations, so the English name does not use that word, and that the English name makes the institution appear "more like an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

factory than a pillar of the party system." McGregor argued that the CCP had "calibrated the way the school presents itself at home, to its Chinese students, and separately, to the outside world." He added that "The subtle name change underlines the central purpose of the party school system, which is as much about enforcing and benchmarking loyalty as imparting modern management skills."

History

The school was opened in late 2005. McGregor
p. 29
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Campus

CELAP has a campus,
" ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. 26 September 2012. Retrieved on 30 September 2012. which includes buildings designed by architects based in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Tom Phillips of ''

'' said that the campus is "oak-lined." Architects Anthony Bechu and Tom Sheehan designed the building to resemble a table from the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

period. Richard McGregor, author of '' The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers'', said that the buildings "resemble a red painting table" and that they "consciously chothe place where 'the master teaches the student."

Purpose

Tom Phillips of ''

'' said "faculty directors say Shanghai’s Leadership Academy is no ordinary Party school." The executive vice president of CELAP, Feng Jun, said that while students at CELAP are instructed "to love Socialism and to strengthen their faith in the paths of Socialism with Chinese characteristics," " is not brainwashing e dohere, it is brainstorming – finding the answers and solutions to the problem" and that "we intend for cadres studying here to free and broaden their minds. Many things can be discussed here." Jiang Haishan, a professor at the school and the head of the school's international program, said "We have an open attitude towards all civilisations that are useful to us, and elearn from them." Frank Pieke, the author of ''The Good Communist: Elite Training and State Building in Today’s China'' and the head of the Modern China Studies department at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

, said that the school and its other schools were established because the Chinese government had "impatience with the lack of what they call the quality of local cadres and their inability to govern their localities or institutions effectively." Pieke added that the school, "very much part of the new glossy face of the Communist Party under

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the president of China from 2003 to 2013, and chairman of the Central Military Comm ...

and

Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao ( zh, s=温家宝, p=Wēn Jiābǎo; born 15 September 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the 6th premier of China from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behin ...

," is used "to show to the outside world how reliable, predictable, modern they really have become" while it teaches its cadres how they should rule the country and connects them to the outside world.

Courses

Tom Phillips of ''

'' said that while " aditional Red subjects are not totally absent from the academy," "for the most part the academy seems more social media than Socialism, with dusty copies of

Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

replaced with talk of microblogging and lectures peppered with English aphorisms." As of 2012, the school offers a crisis management course with a focus on the 2011 England riots.

Students

As of 2010, the students mostly consist of rising CCP officials, while some students are private entrepreneurs.

References

Citations

Sources

* McGregor, Richard. '' The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers''. Harper Perennial: New York, 2012. . Originally published in 2010 by Allen Lane, a

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

imprint.

External links

* {{authority control Universities and colleges in Shanghai 2005 establishments in China Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party Schools and research institutes of the Chinese Communist Party Pudong 2005 in Shanghai