Session #5 - March 26

[Margaret Siryj]

Thanks for posting this article, Dr. Dube.  It is important that a teacher understand the cultural differences if planning to teach students who reside in another country.  As educators, it is our responsibility to embrace students and their cultures.  In the teaching credential, it is addressed that culture throughout an individual classroom or set of rosters can place any individual student around the globe.  Respect is paramount when you are a teacher.  Yes, there are certain topics that should be avoided, but this exists in all educational arenas.  The article stated that China spent over 5 billion dollars for Chinese education technology, and this amount will likely grow.  I agree that it is essential that an educator is sensitive to each of its students and this is accomplished through rapport building and knowing your audience in any classroom, physical or electronic.

[Margaret Siryj]

This article could be a great way to frontload a learning segment.  In other words, high school students can be exposed to some interesting, and perhaps, eye opening graphic data that the article shares.  In Economics, students learn about limited resources, and how countries must decide how to allocate.  The first subheading addresses trade.  The topic sentence begins with a surprising statistic if you are not aware of what China has been up to regarding trade in the last ten years.  As we know, Africa is rich in some resources that China and the US need.  The article points out that China is focusing on African commodites while the US stays centered on manufactured goods.  In either case, Africa is becoming a good ally to both countries. I enjoy using graphic images, and graphs are powerful because visually it is easy for students to spot possible trends and discussion questions can be used to engage critical thinking.

[Phillip Moshoyannis]

Hi Margaret,

My response is peripherally related to the Belt and Road initiative in temrs of construction. It seems that the Chinese are able to procure their own workers for construction jobs inside the United States. While I am sure that security could be a concern, the article below spells out that an even bigger threat is the safety of the worker. Many are not paid below poverty wages, are abused, and constantly watched and threatened. Also, the quality of construction has been called into question for several of these buildings.

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/30/707949897/chinas-global-construction-boom-puts-spotlight-on-questionable-labor-practices?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190330&fbclid=IwAR1HYsMLIMGy4WS5bZ5tw84NcZF0n6mzoWfpLD5Cl_n4bLB1K3OgPVcxet0

[Chris Hertzog]

Final Essay

 

Contemporary China Spring 2019

 

Chris Hertzog

 

This has been a great class to support my classes as a High School teacher of World History AP. I have saved most every article we have had in each session and can use them as well as the videos that have been provided on each topic.

 

In teaching the World History AP curriculum, I have always tried to blend the past with the present in each unit as the AP exam heavily weights the April exams on modern era topics, though always with the assumption that the student has a firm grasp on the history of a region and the past while they explain or discuss the present.  In fact, one of the essays styles involves a prompt called ‘continuity and change over time’ where the student needs to compare and contrast a topic, event or a social, political, interactive, cultural or economic event, trend or system over a period of time and connect what happened then to what is going in the present. Then the student is to explain the nuanced changes and that have occured in this topic, while at the same time acknowledging the subtle or not so subtle ways in which these areas have remained the same.

 

Some examples of this kind of essay or discussion could related to Chinese leadership styles, Confucian attitudes towards family and culture, economic structures and policy or military policy and always in relation to foreign and domestic policies.

 

This class, the discussions and the materials we received are perfect for what I described above and for what I like to do in class.  For example, I may be covering the Song or Ming dynasties and their foreign trade policy and in doing so losing my student’s interests by the moment, but by bringing in a contemporary essay on Xi Jinping and his current economic or military plans, such as the South China Islands or the New Silk Road, these are areas that peak student interest because it is in the news, but they also can quickly see how the past is so identifully connected to the present.  

 

I intend to use some of the USC lectures on these subject areas from the postings on YouTube but also the short news clips in class.  Most of the time I will quick edit some of them for time and then show them in class.

 

The articles provided I can do the same.  Sometimes I will edit them for length and this is possible by using google docs, even for pdfs.  You can import a pdf into a google classroom and edit it and export it for students to read in Google classroom or in print form.  

 

Either way, this class has provided me a wealth of materials to supplement my curriculum. The only main problem I see is finding the time to work through all the material that I have gotten from each of the sessions we have had.  Great trove of gems to use and very current. Thank you!

 

[Brett Kier]

Indeed re: US-China relations. I think the smart money is on maintenance of the status quo: a sometimes competitor and other times adversary (frenemies) relationship. The desire by the China Hawks to escalate conflict with China would result in a self-inflicted wound to be sure – which the US has perfected on an epic level (see Al Qaeda, ISIS, et cetera). The big question seems to be: How far will each side push their hand to achieve a comparative advantage? You are certainly correct to point out that capacity drives agency. If they have the political and economic might, they will want to use it – just as the US has.

[Brett Kier]

The BIR is perhaps one of the largest challenges that the US faces as far as its attenuating economic hegemony is concerned. This particular challenge will also present major security concerns for both countries. With China’s economic explosion slowing down in recent years, its next stage of development will be what all countries who have exhausted their current markets seek, namely, to find and exploit new markets. Perhaps this is a foreshadowing of China’s pursuit of a kind of economic imperialism, as all imperial powers were driven by the need for new markets. Problematically, China’s BIR is meeting resistance from the US because it is attempting to create a world-wide Suez Canal, with all of the benefits that control of global trade routes would entail – a kind of hegemony that the US once enjoyed. The delicate negotiations and promises of infrastructure development that China has made internationally have been met with US efforts to quash those agreements through carrots and sticks of their own. The discussion of boundaries and frontiers vis-à-vis the scope of China’s influence and interests is really a balance of power question.

Because we are moving into a multipolar global security framework, competing interests among countries are bound to be characterized by unilateral rather than multilateral agreements, much to the chagrin of the US. It is likely that the US will ultimately be unsuccessful in boxing out China’s BIR plan, in the same way it has been unsuccessful in economically isolating Russia through sanctions and through the use of Kremlinoia propaganda domestically and internationally. The rub may take place in how the US and China define their “core interests”. They may achieve consensus on the GWOT, but human rights groups in the West have been rightly critical of China’s treatment of its Uyghur population. Additionally, one could well conceive of a time, if it has not happened already, where Uyghurs are trained by US proxies to infiltrate Russia – a kind of Operation Gladio redux. The more cynical among us might ask how long it will take those Uyghur re-education camps to become terrorist training camps (some may argue that is already happening by oppressing the Uyghur population – in that way China is following the US script). There is bound to be some stepping on toes as China pursues the BIR, because the US generally sees its frontier extending from its own borders out into adjacent galaxies.

[Brett Kier]

"My lesson takeaway:  not quite so high flown.  America represents itself as a democratic--and,  yes, moral--world leader, yet it has backed out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  Does China have the high ground here? What does world leadership look like in the context of climate change?  The videos give us some nice visuals and numbers that could support a lively discussion of what our American moral imperative is in the face of this global crisis."

Irony certainly abounds when an autocratic government possesses the moral high ground on anything, but in this case, I would argue that morality has nothing to do with China’s decision to pursue a "green" agenda. It is a matter of survival. They are drowning in pollution of all kinds, and have realized that they will not survive unless they innovate. The US simply is not there yet. There still remains a great deal of money to be made by financial interests in the energy sector in its current form. But as I have written elsewhere, the next phase of energy production will present its own set of environmental challenges (battery waste disposal for electric cars, et cetera), because energy companies will not pursue truly renewable sources of energy that do not follow a scarcity model of energy production. As far as moral responsibility is concerned, your point is well taken. Indeed the US should lead the way on this score, but the current administration is trying to win re-election by convincing people in Appalachia that clean coal is a viable solution to the future's energy demands.

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