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Kevin BaileyIt seems to always come back to Orwell in China and Russia. I did appreciate your distinctive use of Leninism, for I think that his philosophy is the one for which China best alligns, even though Mao and Stalin were homeboys.
Kevin BaileyThe change in the one child policy was a necessary move on the part of the Chinese government. I used the article in my class to help explain the rationale for the change in policy from the Chinese government. The documentary "One Child Nation" was helpful for me in understanding the impact of the policy, but the article did a great job in highlighting the crisis that China faces concerning their aging population (a crisis that the U.S. may also face).
Kevin BaileyLet me begin by saying how much I appreciate the opportunity to learn from Dr. Dube in this course. I must say that the class meetings were really insightful in the early stages of the emergence of the COVID-19 situation in China. I used a lot of the material I took from the class the very next day in leading class discussions on China and the actions taken by the Chinese government.
I have saved a lot of the article that we read in the course and I have used some of them in my unit on China and Nigeria. I teach AP Comparative Government and Politics and I teach about China and Nigeria, but I had never taught about the role of Chinese companies within Nigeria (I knew very little of it before this course). The relevance to my content is clear and it has helped me give the students an opportunity to make more connections to understanding the impact of globalization with two countries we were studying.
The video lectures by Dr. Dube were also very helpful and I used portions of a few of them in a couple of my classes during my China unit. For example, the geography lecture highlighted the location of major Chinese cities and the similarities with major U.S. cities. The videos were filled with all sorts of information that I have already begun to incorporate into my China unit for next year. I feel that I am better equipped to teach about contemporary China after taking this course. I have never taken any college courses in China and my content knowledge came only through my own reading. Thank you to the team at USC and Dr. Dube for providing me with some much-needed content and training.
Kevin BaileyI hope you don't mind if I borrow this lesson from you Billie.
Kevin BaileyI had a lot of my students watch One Child Nation and it sparked a lot of great conversations in my class. Thanks for the heads up.
Kevin BaileyYour students were frantic over the Tik Tok controversy that you stirred up. This was an amazing story and I think that the U.S. government’s ban on the use for military members was the only reason that this grabbed our attention. I think that most of us have an awareness of our lack of security on the web, but I don’t think most of us think that China is watching. But with that scare that you put in them, within a week, everyone was back on Tik Tok.
The CRISPr technology is pretty crazy too.
Kevin BaileyI think I understand where you are coming from, the term genocide isn't usually tied to Mao's rule. However, I think Lynne is right and that the deaths under Mao ought to be thought of as genocide.
I saved the graph because I thought it was super helpful, thanks.
Kevin BaileyI know we spent a lot of time monitoring the coronavirus and how the Chinese government dealt with the situation. Now that we have seen confirmed cases in 49 states, it has just been this past week that we have begun to see closures and cancellations. I am curious as to the opinions of those in the course on how the U.S. handled the outbreak. I know we often like to criticize China, but it seems as though they mobilized fairly quickly and if their numbers are to be believed, they have a good handle on the situation. Whereas the U.S. had time to prepare for this and yet it seems that we are playing from behind. Are the “draconian” measures taken by the Chinese governments justified if they are able to get the disease under control? I might note that Idaho is fairly behind on this situation and we are telling people to avoid large gathers and yet they refuse to cancel schools, which I believe is a large gather.
Anyways, I am interested in your thoughts.
Kevin BaileyThanks for the article Billie, it was an interesting connection they made with smog and the coronavirus.
Kevin BaileyI am doing my project on China and African relations with a focus on Nigeria. I went to Uganda in 2012 and I was shocked at how many Chinese people I saw while I was in Entebbe. A lot of the businesses at the mall were owned by Chinese nationals and there was a great Chinese restaurant that I ate at. On a large scale, the readings showed just how invested China is a lot of industries within a good portion of Africa. Very interesting.
I think I recall that you were also doing your project in China and Africa. What is your focus going to be on?
Kevin BaileyI think that is a great connection for the kids to make. The CFR has some good stuff on the South China Sea and I linked a great article below that might be of some use. I spent some time talking about this with my Comparative students and I like the idea of tying in some literature that they have read and using my boy Teddy.
Kevin BaileyI think you make some great points about the knee-jerk reactions we often make. I do believe that China is challenging our 70 plus year reign as "The Sole Superpower" and that certainly scares Americans. However; a working relationship with China has proven to be good for both America and China because this is not a zero-sum game. I believe it was Samuel Huntington that once stated that two countries will never go to war with each other as long as they both have a McDonalds. The interconnectivity of our economies is perhaps past the point where war would benefit either one of us. So instead we will both complain about each other, perhaps we may rattle our swords in order to negotiate for a new trade deal, but a war will ultimately be off the table.
Kevin BaileyI talk a lot about Chinese relationships with the United States in my Comparative Politics course, so there was a lot of content from the lectures that I found to be useful. I found the material revolving around the South China Sea to be fascinating and the U.S. walking that tightrope with our relationship with China and Taiwan. The censorship topic is always a point of interest for the students and I want to use that Bloomberg article concerning Xi's wealth as an example of Chinese censorship.
The articles on the Chinese relationship with Africa were eye-opening. I hadn't done any reading on that topic, even though I teach about Nigeria. I didn't realize that China was the largest trade partner with Africa (I thought the U.S. was) and the role of China in the creation of African infrastructure. Oil is the largest export of Africa and thus it is predictable that the U.S. would be interested, but I had no idea how invested China was in the financial district in Africa. Also the role the Chinese play in energy, mining, and manufacturing. In order to cut down on shipping costs and increase profit margins, the Chinese have actually began to set up manufacturing firms in Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
Wow, this was a lot of material on the relations with Africa and I plan on using some of the articles in my discussion with my Comparative class as we enter into our study of NIgeria.
Kevin BaileyI found the New York Times article to bring up some good points concerning modernization and culture. The move to the cities is causing the culture that remained rich in the villages to fade. Combine that with the destruction of the temples and other religous monuments during the Mao years, China is loosing a lot of its rich cultural heritage. I like to get my students to make comparisons or to contrast here at home with any country we study. With this article we can draw (albeit rather loosely) comparisons with the rise of commercializations (especially around freeways) in small towns across America. Many small towns that once thrived with local eateries, music, and customs are merged into mini-mall heavens with the same stores and resteraunts as every other town. This is partially what China is facing as they have moved into a more capitalistic soceity and especially as they have left the culturally rich, but economically poor villages. There was also some great graphs in the Asia Development Bank article to help show the level of migration.
Kevin BaileyThe economic reforms in China over the last 40 years are truly remarkable. I just finished up a book on Mao’s reforms (The Tragedy of Liberation) that took place through the 1950’s and it was failure after failure, much like Stalin’s early reforms. Dr. Dube talks about the problems that stemmed from Mao’s land reforms and how the shift to economic reforms paved the way for the miraculous change in the poverty rate in China. Deng Xiaoping is the figure who truly brings about economic reform and not Mao. The infographic provided states that 740 million people in rural areas out of poverty from 1978-2017, that is 19 million people every year.
My AP Comparative course focuses a lot on societal cleavages within the six countries of study. I always bring up the Urban vs. Rural divide and I spend some time discussing the migration of the able to the cities because that is where the industrial jobs are and thus causing the divide to become even bigger. In the comments Dr. Dube you touched on the strategy being “nearly tapped out”, does this connect with the ghost cities? China is slowly expanding the urban area and eradicating the rural? I know that part of the ghost city problem stems from limited investment opportunities, but is it also China trying to keep the engine of change chugging along, understanding that this is one of the only reasons for the poverty alleviation?
Still finishing up the Congressional Research paper, but thanks for the lectures.I had hope that I might be able to show a portion of your 2nd lecture to my students in class if it is alright with you?
