The research examined how Chinese leaders view the thinking process, what thinking styles they value and how they prefer to think. The methodological framework used quantitative analyses of two thinking styles inventories. The survey included a sample of nearly 300 leaders from a wide representation of industry sectors across China who completed Sofo's Thinking Style Inventory (TSI) (Sofo 2002). Additionally, 22 of these leaders completed three forms of thinking style (Sternberg 1997). Another sample of 172 non-education leaders' thinking styles were compared with 48 educational leaders' thinking styles using independent sample t-tests and supported by analysis of variance. The findings showed that Chinese leaders have strong preferences for "executive", "judicial" and "legislative" styles of thinking as well as high preferences for independent and exploring styles. They reported moderate preferences for "inquiring" and "creative" styles and low preference for "conditional" style, an indication that Chinese leaders may be at the forefront of change in an historically conditional China. (Contains 5 tables.)