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Phillip MoshoyannisHi 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.
Phillip MoshoyannisThe China Reckoning: How Beijing Defied American Expectations (Kurt/Ely)“Across the ideological spectrum, we in the U.S. foreign policy community have remained deeply invested in expectations about China-about its approach to economics, domestic politics, security, and global order-even as evidence against them has accumulated. The policies built on such expectations have failed to change China in the ways we intended or hoped.” Why do we keep trying? Is it the sense of imperialism of the past that dominates us still to affect policy? Can we not accept that the competing ideology will continue to resist changes from the outside? While the Chinese economy has skyrocketed, this led to a hardening of the Communist Party ideology. In order for the US to be successful it seems is for China to crack or at least show sustained weakness in its economy. “Short term frustrations” as the authors called it have given sway to long-term harmful and permanent ways of doing business. Even the Trump administration’s attempt to sway them via Comprehensive Economic Dialogues has failed. I agree with the authors’ conclusion that the US needs to seek humility with our ability to change China and instead focus on its own power and behavior. Although I teach at the elementary school level, I could see this article re-written act on grade-level and then bring in https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index-new a debate about economic and personal freedoms.
In “The View from China,” Wang Jisi starts off with a basic rewrite of my analysis of Kurt/Ely to begin his own analysis. What he states is that maybe China no longer recognizes the US positions on several factors pot-Trump election and that the idea of co-evolution aka “benign competition” be the driver of the handling of domestic affairs. In “Engagement Works” Roy states that Kurt/Ely have an incorrect thesis. The US never intended to shape China into its own image but rather to use China to its advantage. In “Engagement Works,” J. Stapleton Roy basically states that rather than allowing China to take center stage as a global leader, the Unites States can regain that position if its own needs are part of the larger global “we are all in this together” picture and that everyone will benefit not one country at the exclusion of the other.
Phillip MoshoyannisAccording to the article, “The Ministry of Education has sharpened the distinctions that divide the best schools from the very good, the good, and the mediocre, and it has designated a small number of elite schools, headed by Tsinghua (Qinghua) and Peking (Beijing) universities, to receive the level of funding that will enable them to achieve world-class status.” What I would like to know is aside from test scores, what are the criteria used to decide who gains entrée into each school? Is there a quota system of some sort based on geography ethnicity? Does political affiliation enter the equation? in Dr. Dube's video, we can also see the dramatic rise in the number of institutions of higher education since 1984, approximately 1000, to now over 2,500 in 2014. China sees the link between education and economic prosperity. Yet there is also that pull to the west as well as record numbers of Chinese have left to study abroad, primarily the United States. What I found interesting was the recent news in the United States about the “scandal” that was exposed at several elite colleges. That there is a link between the ringleader and a college counseling firm in China came as a surprise to me, but then again, should it have? Who are these Chinese that solicit the services of college counseling firms for US schools?
Phillip MoshoyannisThe degree to which the land in China is being used varies tremendously. Here is one example of how caplitalistic interests have crept into the system and the response by the governent to it. It is incredible to me the size of these undertakings right under the nose of the existing local governments. How are they not in on this BEFORE they happen?
http://www.pulitzercenter.org/reporting/dubai-has-palm-islands-china-has-sun-moon-and-flower
Phillip MoshoyannisAfter reading this article I was not sure whether or not this is a Chinese issue or an isuse of modernization per se. While it was stated that the rural base is decreasing at a rapid rate, a few hundred villages per day, and the loss of cultural artifacts that were indignous to those areas, there is a conscientious attempt by those who have been displaced to continue their traditions. I am not so sure if this sentiment is shown in certain rural areas of the US for example to the same degree. Perhaps it is becuase these farmers and peasants of the land go back thousands of year and not merely a few hundred. For my class I would ask them what traditions from agricultural America have been kept and transmitted to the next generation(s) and what have we lost as extinct artifacts? Were there some traditions that were better off forgotten? Are there some practices that we could or should reintroduce?
Phillip MoshoyannisAfter watching the video on the changing economic shifts and reading how China is now more concerned than before with pollution and trying to "go green" to help its economy, I came upon this article that shows how architectural design can acutally lead to zero carbon since there is now a premium on efficicency.
Phillip MoshoyannisHi Margaret,
I like the way you thought about other world cultures that have had to grapple with the use(s) of land and for the reasons associated with those changes. China, as pointed out in the Dr. Dube's video went through a land grab by the state during the Communist Revolution (1947) from those well-off to make communes and then again under Deng Xiaoping in the 1970s that also led to a redistribution and the ability of the farmers to work the land and keep a percent of the crops after the state quota was met. It also reminded me of what became of the freed serfs of Russia after their emancipation. What right or use of the land did they have? How was the land distributed? Did these rural peasants play a part in the revolutionary uprisings of 1917? If so, how? After digging, I found this article that shows that land was a factor https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/1917-peasant-revolutions-russia-serfs-bolsheviks. In addition, these questions also made me think about the end of slavery in the US and how land was used as a method of control as sharecropping and tenant farming for black and white Americans http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/228/farmers-without-land-the-plight-of-white-tenant-farmers-and-sharecroppers. Student can do a compare/contrast of China, Russia and the US in relation to the use of land.
Phillip MoshoyannisInteresting article about Xi and the Communist Party.
Phillip MoshoyannisHi Chris,
After reading the article, I did a some digging about Confucious schools and found out SUNY (State University of New York) of which Nassau Comunity College, where I work as an adjunct professor of sociology, not only has this school, but one specialized for business, headquarted in the heart of Manhattan.
http://www.confuciusbusiness.suny.edu/
Phillip MoshoyannisMargaret looks at the rise in the elderly population from an economics point of view and Brett from a historical point of view in relation to population control as governmental policies coupled with food shortages. I think I will use this article and have my community college students look at it from a sociological point of view of which there are three major ones (Symbolic Interactionism (SI), Neo-Conflict Theory, and Structural-Functionalism). From the SI perspective, how do the young and old make meaning of their shared and intertwined lives today? Are new roles being played out? Will the relationship between these two groups change as the population gets grey? From a Neo-Conflict Perspective, will the elderly still be placed in high esteem and revered or will the additional changes in healthcare and housing make them seen as pariahs/competition? In traditional Chinese society, the elderly used to live with one of their children. Today, however, more young adults are moving out, creating a neolocal residency, and leaving their elderly parents alone. This means that the new generation of elderly people may not have family members to tend to their needs, as young people in the country traditionally have. On the other hand, many young couples are living with their parents because of economic factors and not because of tradition. These young adults simply cannot afford to buy a house of their own or rent an apartment. Experts say family-based care is now impractical because most middle-aged children have little time to take care of their parents as they are working. A new issue the elderly have to face in 21st century China is how to live when their families can not take care of them. From a Stuctural-Functional perpsective their is considerable societal strain due to what is known as the elderly support ratio (working age people divided by number 65 or older). Also from a Structural-Functionalist point of view, how has the "One Child" policy affected the status of women in society? Did women's status change even if briefly when it was acknowleged that a societal replacement rate of 2.1 had not been reached?
Phillip MoshoyannisHi everyone. Thrilled to be online here with all of you. I think I'm most interested in the questions about minority groups and how they are viewed and treated in contemporary China.
