James Heckman is the Henry Schultz distinguished service professor of economics and public policy and director of the Centre for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago. Heckman has devoted his professional life to understanding the origins of major social and economic questions related to inequality, social mobility, discrimination and the formation of skills and regulation in labour markets. He has also done extensive research in China’s labour market and early...

Cai Qi, the fifth-ranked member in the Communist Party’s hierarchy, has been picked to head the Central Party School, the top training ground for cadres. Cai, 70, sits on the elite Politburo Standing Committee and is secretary of the party’s secretariat as well as director of the party’s general office. Responsible for daily operations of the party’s nerve centre, Cai is often referred to as President Xi Jinping’s chief of staff. His new post at the party school means that he will also oversee...