He is a senior visiting fellow at the Civil Service College in Singapore.

FORBES: Inside The Sinosphere: China's New "Diaspora" Economy

Sim Hee Juat is currently a research associate with the Centre for Governance and Leadership at the Civil Service College of Singapore.

FORBES: Inside The Sinosphere: China's New "Diaspora" Economy

Both are longtime party apparatchiks and, like Ms Royal, graduates of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, France's elite civil-service college.

ECONOMIST: France��s Socialists

Of course, mandated military or civil service between high school and college is nothing new.

FORBES: Magazine Article