Inside Furman is published quarterly by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.
A different perspective
With construction cranes dotting skylines, consumers swarming in new malls and shipping docks piled high with ready-to-export crates of toys, apparel and other goods, the economy of China grew at a remarkable 10 percent in 2005.
A struggling nation just decades ago, China now has the fourth largest economy in the world behind the United States , Japan and Germany . With its bustling shopping centers, massive infrastructure improvements and robust manufacturing industry, China is a country on the move.
But Asian Studies and Political Science professor Kate Kaup, who recently returned to Furman after serving a one-year term on the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC), paints a somewhat different view of the world's most populated country.
While literacy, disposable income and prosperity are on the rise in China , human rights and religious and political freedoms are being reigned in by an increasingly anxious Communist government.
“The political climate has become increasingly restrictive over the last two years. Chinese authorities are very concerned about the recent surge in social protests occurring across the country, some of which have turned violent. While many are pushing the Party to loosen control, the Party is trying its best not to lose control. Something has to give or the situation could get much worse.”
Preparing to host the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, China is trying to put its best face forward to the rest of the world. But a 2005 CECC report that Kaup helped write reveals a darker side of a country that consistently skirts United Nations resolutions.
Congress created the CECC in 2000 to monitor human rights and rule of law development in China . The Washington, D.C.-based group also submits an annual report to the president and to Congress. As one of about ten CECC staff members, Kaup specialized in China's treatment of its ethnic and Islamic minority groups, as well as its policy towards North Korean refugees in China.
According to the report, posted at www.cecc.gov and submitted to Congress and the president last October, the Chinese government routinely uses vaguely worded laws to jail citizens who actively promote political or religious freedom. The state also restricts some religious ceremonies and shows little tolerance of public questioning of Party policies.
“Chinese authorities have tightened restrictions on journalists, editors, and Web sites, and continue to impose strict licensing requirements on publishing, prevent citizens from accessing foreign news sources, and intimidate and imprison journalists, editors and writers,” says the 90-page report.
As part of her research, Kaup met with Chinese officials as well as dissidents, former political prisoners and activists. She also scoured Asian newspapers, attended several Congressional hearings, and participated in numerous CECC roundtables.
Kaup says economic development, literacy and infrastructure improvements have moved at a much slower pace in minority-dominated regions of China . The predominately Han Chinese government regularly jails minorities who openly question central law, organize public demonstrations or push for more autonomous control.
In a chapter of the CECC report devoted to the treatment of North Korean refugees, Kaup wrote that refugees seeking relief from starvation or political asylum are often forcibly detained and deported to North Korea , where they face long prison sentences and hard labor.
Those not deported, many of them women, are vulnerable to exploitation and prostitution. Though reports vary, Kaup says as many as 30,000 North Korean refugees are hiding in northeastern China .
Research by the CECC can help shape diplomatic relations between the United States and China . The group's findings are also available to businesses operating in China and to potential investors in the region.
Kaup says her experience inside the beltway gave her a complex understanding of the forces at work inside China and the nation's capitol. The U.S. government, she says, needs to devote more resources to studying and developing ties with the Chinese. By sharing her experiences with students, she believes she will help them gain a more profound understanding of a region that is taking a much larger role on the world stage.
In recent years Furman's emphasis on Asian Studies has mirrored the region's growing importance.
In 2003, Furman hosted the national ASIANetwork conference. The event attracted a diverse group of Asian scholars from throughout North America to discuss Asian-focused teaching. ASIANetwork is a consortium of 150 liberal arts colleges that support the study of Asia at the undergraduate level.
In April 2003, the Richard W. Riley Institute launched a five-part series entitled “ China 's Global Rise,” with an address on US-Chinese relations by Ambassador James Lilley. In October 2004, the Institute sponsored “China's Global Rise: The Chinese Economy and the United States,” a widely attended conference that featured keynote addresses by Albert Keidel, former deputy director for the Office of East Asian Nations at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Pieter Bottelier, former Chief of the World Bank's Mission in Beijing
Two months later, Furman announced that a $1 million gift from Beth and Ravenel B. Curry III would be used to expand learning opportunities in Chinese Studies. The gift helped fund new faculty hires in Chinese language and Chinese economics, and supports a wide variety of learning and research opportunities for students and faculty, including the Summer China Experience, a program that pays all expenses of a two-week trip to China for 15 incoming freshmen.