Civil Service Exams

I just saw this news item from Xinhua (the PRC news agency).
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/07/content_5574158.htm
Very good.
The competition for civil service posts reminds me of the historical "scholar official" principle that kept China with the most durable government on the planet. You may argue about the despotism, and point out many rough patches, but the civil service, Confucian-style, gave China a unique historical stability of government. That is, of course, a big reason why dynasty could follow dynasty without the country fragmenting and falling into the dustbin of history, as so many other have done.
The closest equivalent elsewhere has been the civil service component in the West European countries. The export of the British civil service concept is a large factor in the cohesion of India, which is composed of many many subgroups which otherwise may have gone the route of Balkanisation. (BTW, no negativism is ascribed to that term, it is simply the most convenient phrase available - if you have a better one, please substitute as applicable.)
Anyway, perhaps Chinese cultural history is re-asserting itself, and we will gain have the scholar-officials. China could do worse.
There is a lesson there that should be exported.