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Explore the motivations behind journalists leaving Cortland to cover more important stories, fulfill intellectual interests, strengthen resumes, and have a sense of global citizenship. Learn about Western values, American declinism, soft power, Joseph Nye's concept of soft power, Liu Xiaobo's activism, and the Charter 08 movement.
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Reporting China 2 Dreams of Xi Jinping, Liu Xiaobo & Jack Ma (Includes links to story ideas)
Why did we escape from Cortland? • To cover more important stories • To fulfill intellectual interest • To strengthen resume • To know yourself better • To learn from others • To have a sense of global citizenship.
What are the Western values? • Individualism • Plural values • Free election • Constitutionalism • Human rights • Equality • Rule of law, • fair (free) competition • Free market • Separation of church and state • Check and balance • Freedom of speech and the press • Freedom of assembly
Before we move on to the China Dream… We will discuss two backdrops: • American Declinism • Soft Power
The American declinism and ideas • Declinism is a common idea recurring in U.S. that its superpower is coming to an end. • Historian Victor Davis Hansen has identified several successive stages of American declinism. During the Great Depression, out-of-work Americans viewed the proud, dynamic “New Germany” with envy. In the 1950s, the success of Sputnik 1 led Americans to fear they were falling behind the Soviet Union. In the 1970s, Americans fretted over Japan's economic boom • In the 21st century, America's worries have focused on the rise of China,
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers • He predicted decline of America relative to other powers, Japan, Europe and the Soviet Union. • He examined the concept of overstretch and relative power between 1500 and 1980. • Powers whose ambitions and security requirements are greater than their resource base will decline.
Obama’s Pivot to Asia strategy • The strategy of rebalancing in Obama administration reflects the concept of overstretch. • It tried to redistribute strategic resources from the Middle East to Asia. • “We've heard this talk before. At the end of the Vietnam War, there was a thriving industry of global commentators promoting the idea that America was in retreat, and it is a theme that repeats itself every few decades (Clinton, 2011, p. 63).”
Joseph Nye and Soft Power • Joseph Nye of Harvard University coined the term Soft Power in a 1990 book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. He rebuked Kennedy’s idea. • Soft power is the ability to attract while hard power is power of coercion. Soft power is the ability to shape the preferences of others. The currency of soft power is culture, political values, and foreign policies. • Soft power resources are with Hollywood or American universities. Hard power comes from military, economy and natural resources.
Power of consent: Gramsci and Nye • Nye’s soft power is influenced by Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and the power of consent. • Gramsci’s influence on Nye is easy to see: hegemony, as soft power, works through consent on a set of general principles that secures the supremacy of a group and, at the same time, provides. • Research on soft power is very popular in China.
Liu Xiaobo: Dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner • Liu Xiaobo was seen as a hero by many but a villain by his own government. • An academic, studying literature and philosophy, and received his PhD from Beijing Normal University. • When the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement began in 1989, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in the US. He flew back to China. • Mr. Liu and others negotiated with troops to allow a peaceful exit of protesters. • Though he was offered asylum in Australia, he turned it down, choosing instead to stay in China. He was subsequently arrested and jailed for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement".
Empty chair • In 2008, he and a group of intellectuals declared the Charter 08. He was sentenced 11 years of imprisonment. • A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee praised Liu Xiaobo for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." China reacted angrily. Mr Liu was not allowed to attend the ceremony. • In June 2017, with three years left of his sentence, Chinese authorities said Mr Liu had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He died weeks later, at the age of 61.
How is he known in the West? • Love story: The lovers even China couldn't keep apart • He believed in non violence, and universal liberal democracy. • News stories: Liu Xiaobo has suffered so others may be free • Bio stories: Liu Xiaobo, the man who stayed BBC story of Liu Xiaobo
What did he ask? Excerpt from Charter 08 • Amending the Constitution. • Separation of powers. • Legislative democracy. • An independent judiciary. • Public control of public servants. • Guarantee of human rights. • Election of public officials. • Freedom of association. • Freedom of assembly. • Freedom of expression. • Freedom of religion. • Civic education. • Free markets and protection of private property, including privatizing state enterprises and land. • Financial and tax reform. • Social security. • Protection of the environment. • A federated republic. • Truth in reconciliation
What did he ask? • Where will China head in the 21st century? • Continue a "modernization" under this kind of authoritarian rule? Or recognize universal values, assimilate into the mainstream civilization, and build a democratic political system? This is a major decision that cannot be avoided.
Preamble of Charter 08 “This year is the 100th year of China's Constitution, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 30th anniversary of the birth of the Democracy Wall, and the 10th year since China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. After experiencing a prolonged period of human rights disasters and a tortuous struggle and resistance, the awakening Chinese citizens are increasingly and more clearly recognizing that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal common values shared by all humankind, and that democracy, a republic, and constitutionalism constitute the basic structural framework of modern governance.”
What is Jack Ma (Ma Win)’s dream? • Entered a teachers’ college after two rejections. Rejected by Harvard 10 times. • His dream started 1995, when he visited Seattle and California. • Started a company in a small apartment, now the richest man in China. • Jack Ma is now one of the world leaders of ideas.
Jack Ma at a Davos World Economic Forum World leaders called for regulation of technology. Abe Shinzo and Angela Markel. Jack opposed. “Humans are at the very, very early stage of technology. Saddling the industry with far-reaching rules at this point would be premature. We should not make a pair of shoes for a three-year-old boy and say, ‘All your life you have to wear these shoes. We know so little about the future.” “From my experience, I think technology has empowered the small business—the women, the disabled, the rural areas.” That outlook is in line with Alibaba, which is a platform for small and mid-sized enterprises to sell to global market. Compare that view with how Amazon is viewed in US? Overall, Chinese have much more optimistic view of technology than U.S.
Chinese IT billionaires and politics? • Jack Ma tried to keep distance from politics. In 2015 interview at Davos, Ma discussed how he once worked at a Chinese state-owned enterprise, which led him to tell early Alibaba employees they should be “in love with the government [but] don’t marry them.” • In 2018, he praised the Chinese political system comparing that to the U.S. system. “I watched the 19th Party Congress myself many times……China has two advantages. The first is China’s political stability, there’s no other country the entire world with this type of environment. The Democratic party always talks about how bad the Republican party is, and the Republican party always talks about how bad the Democratic party is, and they never improve themselves. In the past five years under the Communist party, I really think it’s gotten more amazing, [the party’s] ability to improve itself and re-invent itself.” • He also announced he will step down from the chairman of Alibaba in 2020, to work on education. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/09/business/jack-ma-alibaba-chairman-resigns.html • People’s daily disclosed he is a member of Chinese Communist Party. https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/business/jack-ma-alibaba-communist-china/index.html
Chinese Enterprise and Chinese Government • The separation of the public and the private sectors in Chinese economy is blur. It is observed U.S. government now identifies Chinese firms with Chinese government. Especially, after the 19th People’s Congress where President Xi Jinping consolidated absolute power, U.S. sees Chinese government’s power over business is growing. • Chinese businesses looking to spread across the world are being closely examined by U.S. and Western governments over concerns they're too close to Beijing, particularly when their products are being used in areas of national security. • The top of JD.com — Liu Qiangdong, or Richard Liu — was arrested in the United States for alleged sexual misconduct in 2018. He has denied the accusation and has not been charged with a crime. • Hwa Wei arrest is the recent development of tensions between Chinese government and U.S. report. Meng Wanzhou, the Chinese tech company's chief financial officer, was detained in Vancouver on December 1 at the request of US authorities. • She's accused by the United States of helping Huawei cover up violations of sanctions on Iran, according to Canadian prosecutors. The report of South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s elite newspaper. It sees the arrest as a “political kidnapping” amid the US China trade war.
Xi Jinping and China Dream. • President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. When he attended an exhibit called “The revival of China,” he made his first reference of China dream. • What does it actually mean? The Western media have reported it in different ways.
China dream is not a spin off of American dream • The phrase "China Dream" and the associated idea of a collective hope for restoring China's lost national greatness, have ancient origins in Chinese literary and intellectual history. • In the Classic of Poetry (Shi Jing), the poem "Flowing Spring" (下泉) describes a poet waking up in despair after dreaming of the former Zhou Dynasty.
Xi is very different from his predecessors • Xi wants his citizens to identify with “the motherland, the Chinese nation or race, Chinese culture, and the Chinese socialist road.” He calls this “the Four Identifications.” • He has cast off the old maxim that China should hide its strength and bide its time. • Xi’s resistance to the seductive power of liberal values has been ferocious. He calls liberals “parrots.” • “Shoes don’t have to be identical but just to fit the wearer.”
Exporting civilization A veteran diplomat of Singapore said: “ Americans—and all Westerners—should think of China’s government as led by the Chinese Civilization Party, not the Chinese Communist Party, because its goal is to revive Chinese civilization, not to export communism.” • One Road One Belt: The new silk road.
How are the media reporting these dreams? • Challenge and skepticism: New York Times: Chinese Empire Reborn Washington Post: China’s new Silk Road conundrum “I traveled often to the frontier regions because it was there that the dynamic of power and resistance was most evident, and that I got the clearest look at how China treats its most vulnerable citizens….Party officials fear they are like the Central Asian regions under Soviet rule — always on the verge of rebellion and eager to break free.”
New story examples: • About Chinese Soft power China sees Western values and Western power influence https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/opinion/china-west-power-influence.html In the age of Trump and Brexit, China’s national hubris is on the rise
Story ideas: How do the Chinese elites view the West and America? The case of Chinese intellectual: Eric X. Li • Investor and political scientist • Li argues that the universality claim of Western democratic systems is going to be "morally challenged" by China. • According to him, the strength of Chinese political system is Adaptability and Meritocracy (Upward mobility). • Chinsese people optimistic about future http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-37570965
However, there are clear signs of elites’ frustration and doubts. Story Ideas: • Life of surveillance What It’s Like to Live in a Surveillance State • Young people of China Chinese millennium and free speech Chinese students “While on your way to work or on an errand, every 100 meters you pass a police blockhouse. Video cameras on street corners and lamp posts recognize your face and track your movements. At multiple checkpoints, police officers scan your ID card, your irises and the contents of your phone.” Washington Post “At well over 320 million people between the ages of 20 and 34 living in China today, the scope of the generation we in the US would define as China's millennial…who were born after the Tiananmen Square Incident.”
Technology and comparison • As China Marches Forward on, A.I., the White House Is Silent Eurasia Group Report • China’s A.I. Advances Help Its Tech Industry, and State Security
Fan Bingbing, Film Industry, and Government • CNN, the disappearance • Fan Bingbing is the top actress in China, but also one of the best paid actresses in the world, just behind Jennifer Aniston and ahead of Charlize Theron. • Interesting that some Chinese intellectuals criticized this measure publicly. Zhang Lifan, a historian based in Beijing; “Her vanishing has made people feel uncomfortable. Why don’t [the authorities] follow legal procedure and let people know what is going on?” • According to an Guardian article, “Her fans continue to rally around her…a hashtag celebrating her birthday had more than 64 million views and more than 30,000 posts. “Because we are ice country. Because you are Fan Bingbing. We will wait for you.” • Over the last two years, China has tightened control over media and entertainment. Authorities have cracked down on apps, reality TV, live streamed shows, and the children’s character, Peppa the Pig. A new law on Chinese film implemented last year requires the industry to “promote core socialist values.” • Chinese film freedom, an interview on China File.
Leftover in China • Leftover women or Sheng nu (Chinese: 剩女; shèngnǚ) is a term that classifies women who remain unmarried in their late twenties and beyond. • The shift from a rural society to an urban society has given women economic power. This economic power, in turn, has made them demand more of marriage; it has made them more likely to view the relationship in terms of compatibility, attraction and other similar factors, rather than a form of economic stability as it was before. • It’s now a cultural phenomena in a transitional society. Often used in a paradoxical forms. • Leftover in China • A Chinese version. • Missing in China
