 | China's economy, international relations and judicial system were among the topics discussed by Yale faculty members (from left) Deborah Davis, Paul Gewirtz, Harold Hongju Koh, Frances Rosenbluth and Ernesto Zedillo. |
As the campus and the City of New Haven reverted back to the pace of a more typical Friday afternoon following President Hu Jintao's visit on April 21, an audience gathered in Battell Chapel to hear five Yale faculty members comment on their impressions of the Chinese leader's speech earlier in the day, and talk about current-day China more generally.
The featured panelists for the discussion on "China Today" were sociology professor Deborah Davis, Law School professor Paul Gewirtz, Law School dean Harold Hongju Koh, political science professor Frances Rosenbluth and Yale Center for the Study of Globalization director Ernesto Zedillo. Ian Shapiro, the Sterling Professor of Political Science and the Henry R. Luce Director of the newly renamed Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, moderated the event.
Several of the panelists noted that a core message of Hu's Sprague Hall address is that China, while continuing its rapid economic development, will pursue its own distinctive economic, legal and social reforms, rather than mimic those of any other country. (See related story.)
The issue of human rights was central to the panelists' discussion of topics ranging from the rule of law in China to the country's emergence as a powerhouse in the global economy, to its relations with its neighbors.
In her discussion on "China: Rising Expectations," Davis said that Hu's visit demonstrated that Americans and others expect more of Chinese leaders and citizens than was the case five years ago.
Davis, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, commented that "the world expects China and its citizens to play a role in public life," and said that the mobilization of Chinese citizens for Hu's Yale visit -- both supporters and protesters -- was one example of such engagement.
Similarly, she said, the efforts of journalists have heightened the expectations of citizens across the globe for China's involvement in world events, such as the crisis in Darfur.
China's brisk economic development also led to higher hopes among Chinese citizens themselves, Davis told the audience. She said they have rising expectations for better and more jobs in China's new service-oriented economy as well as increased recognition of the need for improved health care, particularly for China's massive elderly population (she noted that life expectancy in China's urban areas surpasses that of the United States).
Furthermore, she added, there is burgeoning interest in a more transparent media and greater access to information, as well as a growing resistance to China's one-child policy, which has resulted in "a dramatic distortion in gender ratio" and the possibility that "23 million Chinese men may never find brides."
Of Hu's characterization of the Chinese as people of "initiative, ingenuity and perseverance," Davis said she and the Chinese leader "are on the same wavelength," and declared that this "dynamic society" will be a force for change in its own country.
"On the factory floor, there is a surge of empowered workers who are increasingly brave," Davis stated.
Gewirtz, who has assisted with efforts to advance the rule of law in China as the director of the Law School's China Law Center, acknowledged that "by any reasonable definition, China is not a 'rule-of-law' society."
In his talk on "China and the Rule of Law," he stated that there is widespread corruption in the country, an absence of legal standards and court procedure, and arbitrary punishment of dissidents, among other problems.
However, he claimed, there has been much improvement in the past 25 years in China towards creating a society based on rule of law.
That change, said Gewirtz, is motivated in part by China's economic development, which has required more effective legal standards in business, but also reflects an effort by leaders to avoid the abuses of the Cultural Revolution. Echoing Davis' contention, Gewirtz said the government also recognizes a growing "rights consciousness" on the part of the Chinese people.
In 1979, he noted, there were just two law schools in China and only 2,000 lawyers, while today, there are over 100 law schools and 150,000 lawyers. Likewise, he said, "there is a vast number of new laws coming out at a furious pace."
Gewirtz contended a sign of China's progress toward rule-of-law standards is the fact that 20% of legal cases against the government have been successful.
The law professor added that there is now more debate about the legal system in China, but acknowledged that such discussion is easier than forthright political debate in the country.
Noting that Hu invoked the issue of legal reform in his Yale speech, Gewirtz said "law and legality have filtered into the political culture and public consciousness," and added that there is rising public pressure for legal reform. Some activists for legal reform have gotten assistance from Yale's China Law Center, Gewirtz noted.
"Some of these reformers are outside of the government -- professors in law schools and activist lawyers," said Gewirtz. "But many are in the government, too. They often face obstacles, of course, but they are often very effective."
Gewirtz also noted that despite his leadership, "President Hu does not control China," adding, "There are also forces in play in China that Hu can't control," referring to Chinese activists and citizens. "[China's future] isn't all in President Hu's hands."
Koh, who served as an assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor during the Clinton administration, described China's human rights record as "abysmal," noting that Chinese citizens lack "the right to speak, worship, work in a union, participate in political life, determine what they want to hear on the radio or watch on television, or even to choose how many children they are going to have."
He stressed that anyone who has an "alternative philosophy" to that espoused by the government "is brutally suppressed," among them Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners.
He also noted that there is widespread use of torture in Chinese facilities (and rewards for police who use torture), re-education campaigns in labor camps, frequent detainment or punishment of HIV/AIDS activists and abuses of acceptable workplace health and safety standards, among other human rights violations.
"It's a grim picture," declared Koh.
According to the Law School dean, even though Hu said in his speech that he supports human rights according to the rule of the law, his response to a question from an audience member made a point that is unmistakable in its meaning.
"What he said was, 'I'm not a Westerner; Westerners believe in individual freedom as a starting point. ... I don't have to have a strategy for promoting human freedom because that is not what we do, and we are not going to follow your game plan,'" stated Koh, paraphrasing Hu.
Koh told his audience, however, that the United States can influence the Chinese government on human rights issues by trying to persuade reform through dialogue, declaration and monitoring, rather than by being an "ineffectual bad cop."
The policy of the U.S. government, he noted, has been to continually name specific individuals who it believes are being unfairly detained or abused, and to not stop mentioning those names until the desired results are achieved.
Koh applauded President George Bush for upholding this practice in his meeting with Hu one day before the Chinese leader's Yale visit.
Likewise, he said the United States must emphasize that it is not in China's self-interest to "try to enter the world economy with a backward system of law and human rights.
"China can be and must be a global leader, but only if it plays by global rules," Koh continued, adding that the U.S. message to Hu should be, "You can be a leader in the 21st century global marketplace but not if you insist on 19th-century attitudes toward human rights and personal freedom."
Koh concluded with a pun by saying, "The question we have to ask the Chinese leader is, 'Who are you?'" invoking the song by the band The Who. He then followed that question with words from the same song: "'We really wanna know.'"
Rosenbluth focused her talk on China's relations with neighboring countries, particularly Japan.
She told of how an annual visit by Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizuma to the controversial Yasukini Shrine in Tokyo, a memorial to Japan's war dead, has been condemned in China because it honors those who participated in Japanese military aggression in China and other Asian nations. The shrine also honors the spirits of convicted Japanese war criminals.
Rosenbluth noted that the Japanese population is nearly evenly divided in their approval of the prime minister's visits, which have also resulted in outcries from South Korea and other countries. However, she said, support for the homage is rising, particularly among Japan's young.
The political science professor said that there are several reasons for that support, including a growing nationalism and "apology fatigue."
"The Japanese feel they've apologized for the war [with China] ... and that the apology has not been accepted," Rosenbluth said. "In the Japanese government's view, it can't do more."
Rosenbluth noted that the economic relationship between Japan and China is "vibrant," pointing out that Japan is the third biggest investor in China after Hong Kong and Korea. However, she said, "China likes to have Japan as a horse to beat," adding that a strained relationship could be a means by which China can "deflect from other political problems at home."
Despite Japan's nationalism and the ire it has inspired in some of its neighbors over the prime minister's shrine visits, Rosenbluth said these countries need not fear aggression on Japan's part.
"Japan has little chance of becoming the militaristic state it was pre-World War II," Rosenbluth told the audience.
In fact, she said, it was more likely that Japan will turn to "a more peaceable foreign policy" in the future.
The United States, Rosenbluth added, can be of help in "smoothing relations" between China and Japan.
Zedillo, the former president of Mexico, addressed China's unique position in the world as one of the fastest growing economies yet still a poor nation in his talk on "China and Globalization."
He noted that since 1978, China's economy "has grown by a factor of nine and has lifted 400 million people out of extreme poverty."
Even if the country's economy were to slow down slightly, it will still become the largest economy in the world by 2030, Zedillo told his audience.
Equally striking, he said, is that within a short period of time, China transformed from a country that was closed to trade and investment to being "more open than Europe and the United States." The country is now the third largest trading country in the world after the United States and Germany, according to Zedillo.
"It is not an accident that in recent years, globalization has driven China but China has also driven globalization," he said.
However, Zedillo said, China is "still a very poor country."
"This is something that we tend to overlook," he told his audience, pointing out that in terms of per capita Gross Domestic Product, China -- with its 1.3 billion people -- ranks 118th in the world.
"This is an irony," stated Zedillo. "China is a poor country that has to manage a lot of internal and external pressures."
While the Bush administration has stressed that China has to be a "responsible stakeholder in the international system," Zedillo said, there is "no standard" for what, exactly, that means.
Zedillo advocated for U.S. endeavors that help to strengthen democratic institutions in China, claiming that this effort "is important for the two countries but also important for globalization. The world certainly needs free markets and certainly needs integration."
Now that China is integrated in the world economy, the country is "in a better position to adopt more democracy within the country over time," said Zedillo. Quoting a British official who remarked that "Trade is God's diplomacy," Zedillo then added, "Trade is the powerful instrument that can make China more like us, and, hopefully, make us more like China."
-- By Susan Gonzalez
T H I S
Faculty panel explores various
aspects of 'China Today'
Higher hopes
Rule of law
Human rights
Relations with neighbors
China in the world
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