32
Mr. S
MITH
. Ms.
Lawrence, thank you very much for your testi-
mony.
And, without objection, your full statement and that of all of our
distinguished witnesses will be made a part of the record, but I
thank you for it.
Now, Mr. Daly.
STATEMENT OF MR. ROBERT DALY, DIRECTOR, KISSINGER IN-
STITUTE ON CHINA AND THE U.S., WOODROW WILSON
INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS
Mr. D
ALY
. I would like to thank the chair and the other members
of the committee for the chance to discuss a very important set of
issues with you today.
These are issues that I have worked on from within government
and academia for almost 30 years. And I can tell you, Mr. Chair-
man, that all of your
concerns are very well-founded, and they re-
quire constant attention from the practitioners in the field who are
working with China. There are no easy answers to this. It requires
balance.
Many of my Chinese colleagues and friends would be surprised
to hear that there was a discussion today about Chinese influence
on American universities, because, in their experience, the influ-
ence has flowed almost entirely in the other direction since 1854,
when the first Chinese earned a degree from an American Univer-
sity.
In fact, the very idea of the university, the modern university in
China, was introduced from the West and primarily from the
United States by people like John Leighton Stuart,
by Johns Hop-
kins University, Oberlin, Yale, and Harvard, who brought the idea
of the academic disciplines at university degrees to China in the
first place. And the model for China’s universities, their structures,
their degrees, their governance—with the exception of the involve-
ment of the Chinese Communist Party, which is pervasive, as you
suggest—this model comes primarily from the United States.
Even today, Chinese universities are adapting American aca-
demic standards and models to suit China’s needs, and Chinese
scholars seek partnership with American experts and publication
in American journals. Furthermore,
young Chinese, as you have
mentioned, now comprise 29 percent of all foreign students in the
U.S., and approximately 2 million have pursued degrees here since
1979.
On the other side of the equation, American academics rarely
seek publication in Chinese journals, most of which are of low qual-
ity and many of which deal in plagiarized and faked research. And
few American students pursue degrees from Chinese universities.
Most Americans students who visit China—and I support them to
do so, I believe strongly in the value of study abroad, but most of
these students go for short-term language and cultural classes as
part of U.S. degree programs. So Chinese education, as such, holds
very little allure for Americans.
So there can be no question that American universities have far
greater impact on
China than China has on them, just as there can
be no question that American soft power in China overall—our in-
fluence on Chinese institutions, the aspirations, tastes, and values
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33
of the Chinese people—while they are not what we would like them
to be, dwarf China’s soft power here. I think that that fact has to
be kept clearly in mind, because calls for reconsideration of our pol-
icy of engagement with China are growing more strident.
Still, yes, as you note, China does exert influence on American
universities, and that seems to be growing. And it comes, I believe,
primarily from American colleges’ and universities’ need for and
their fear of losing
Chinese sources of financing, although it doesn’t
come only from there.
We should mention, too, that while we are talking about our con-
cerns about Chinese impacts on America, we should recognize the
contribution that educational exchanges with China have made to
the United States. This is not just a story about the flow of Chinese
money into American universities. Even more beneficial has been
the flow of Chinese talent and energy into American society.
Many of the Chinese students who study here remain in the U.S.
after graduation, and this new generation of immigrants, like their
predecessors, is providing a vital infusion of expertise into every
professional field and academic discipline in the United States. So
we should recognize today that when we speak of Chinese students,
this is not to demonize them; we are also
speaking of our American
neighbors, colleagues, and friends, and they are making a big con-
tribution to this country.
We should also note that money isn’t the only thing that Amer-
ican universities want from the PRC. They also cooperate with
China in order to fulfill their academic missions. American schol-
ars, if they are to be leaders in their field, need access to Chinese
archives, data, and research sites. They need to interview Chinese
experts and survey Chinese populations. They need study-abroad
opportunities for American students. American students now can-
not be leaders in their field unless they have knowledge in China.
In short, because the PRC is now central, whether we like it or
not,
to nearly every global issue, be it strategic, economic, techno-
logical, environmental, public health, U.S. universities cannot do
their work, they cannot be universal, unless they engage with
China to some degree.
This is a new situation not only for American universities but for
American corporations, professional institutions, American
filmmakers, American subnational governments. They now have
China
interests, China relations, and China policies. This is a posi-
tive development, I believe, in the main, but it has its dangers.
American universities fear ill repute in China. They fear being
cut off from China. They fear the loss of Chinese tuition and fees.
And this fear does give China leverage, and China knows it.
We should, furthermore, be worried about how China will use the
leverage. As the chairman has mentioned, Document 9 and fol-
lowing documents make very clear that issues like constitutional
democracy, civil society,
neoliberal economics, and Western ideas of
journalism cannot be discussed openly in Chinese universities or in
the Chinese media.
Earlier this year, China’s Minister of Education, Yuan Guiren,
told a meeting of Chinese academic leaders in Beijing that they
should reduce the number of Western-published textbooks in their
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