The appointment of Wan Gang as China's new science and technology minister breaks fresh ground for the People's Republic.
任命万钢为中国新的科技部部长，对中国具有开创性意义。
First, Mr Wan studied and lived overseas for 15 years – in Germany, where he gained a PhD and then worked for Audi. Second, he is not a member of the ruling Communist party, which would ordinarily exclude him from consideration for a ministry.
首先，万钢有15年海外学习和生活的经历——他在德国获得博士学位，然后在奥迪(Audi)工作。其次，他不是执政的中国共产党党员，这点通常会将他排除在部长人选之外。
A few non-communists were ministers in the early years of communist rule in China, but they were purged in an “anti-rightist” movement in 1958. No non-party member has held a cabinet rank since.
Mr Wan has been a member of the Public Interest party, one of China's eight registered democratic parties, since 2005. But his appointment does not represent much of a broadening of the political class. These parties are subservient groupings whose role is to give the political system a veneer of diversity without inconvenient reality.
在中国共产党执政初期，曾有少数非党内人士担任部长职务，但后来都在1958年的“反右”运动中被清理了出去。此后再也没有党外人士出任过国务院部委的正职。
Xinhua, the state news agency, put a positive spin on Mr Wan's non-party status yesterday, saying it was a “notable move in the political arena”, reflecting President Hu Jintao's reform agenda.
But since the Communist party and its 70m-plus members control every other significant government post in the country, the ministerial appointment represents a symbolic rather than a substantive change.
万钢2005年加入致公党——这是中国登记在册的8个民主党派之一。但他的任命并不意味着中国政治阶层的扩大。这些民主党派属于辅助团体，其作用是给中国政治体系披上多元化外衣，而不带来真正的不便。
Mr Wan's German connection may be more significant. Overseas returnees such as Mr Wan (nicknamed “sea turtles” in China) have generally struggled in government posts.
中国国家新闻机构新华社(Xinhua)昨日对万钢的党外人士身份给予积极评价，称这是政治领域一个引人注目的举措，反映出国家主席胡锦涛的改革进程。
The sea turtles have often found themselves resented by traditional bureaucrats, and at a disadvantage without the deep connections forged through years of networking in the government and party.
Mr Wan's overseas curriculum vitae would probably disqualify him from serving in a large ministry, but he has a superb technological pedigree to hold the science portfolio and further China's efforts to build a homegrown, technologically independent car industry.
He has also retained close ties with German industry and still serves on the supervisory board of ThyssenKrupp, the steel company.
但由于中国共产党及其7000多万党员控制着其它所有重要的政府职位，因此，此次部长任命具有的是象征意义，并不代表实质性改变。
万钢的德国背景也许更重要。像万钢这样的海外归国人员（在中国被戏称为“海龟”）通常在政府职位并不顺利。
“海龟”们常常发现自己不招传统政府官员的喜欢，而且，没有经年累月在政府和党内构筑的深厚人脉，也让他们处于劣势。
万钢的海外求学资历，或许会使他失去到大部委就职的资格，但杰出的技术背景使他足以胜任科技部长一职，并深化中国打造拥有独立技术的本土汽车产业的努力。
他还与德国工业保持着紧密联系，并仍担任钢铁公司蒂森克虏伯(ThyssenKrupp)的监事会成员。
译者/何黎
(责任编辑：威展小王)
