China's 'deficit of understanding'

The Silk Road, blocked by the Great Wall, is losing its charm fast.

SHIN KYUNG-JINThe author is the Beijing bureau chief of the JoongAng Ilbo. With two weeks left before the 20th party congress — the largest political event of the Communist Party of China (CPC) — at the end of September last year, the Financial Times expressed concerns about an “information vacuum” around China. The paper argued that it has impossible to understand Beijing, as China has blocked foreign experts from studying it. The cost is high. Among foreign policy decision-makers in foreign countries, “engagement” to advocate exchanges with China has become taboo. On the other hand, Chinese intelligence sources spread all over the world inform China of even the most trivial news. That could represent a “deficit of understanding.”

Recently, that has become a “deficit of studying abroad.” Many Korean students in master’s and doctoral programs at prestigious Chinese universities, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, have deepening concerns. They chose to study in China with the dream of becoming China experts, but they’ve hit the Great Wall. Since last year, the Chinese authorities have added the Ministry of Education’s review of academic papers to the existing two stages of preliminary and main reviews. If any one of the five Education Ministry reviewers oppose, students cannot get a degree. Entire departments may be disadvantaged, as even supervising professors cannot know who the reviewers are.

After all, professors recommend that students avoid topics the authorities are reluctant to see. Research methods such as field investigation, surveys and interviews also are not allowed. As the Ministry of National Security stepped up after the implementation of the updated anti-espionage act, the Chinese have become cautious of what they say to others. Foreign countries’ China experts may disappear soon.

Conversely, Chinese students are researching the latest studies and sensitive issues all over the world. The doctors return to and work for China. The deficits of understanding and studying are accumulating structurally.

The withdrawal of foreign consulting firms is just the tip of the iceberg. Foreigners who are critical of China are not issued a visa. 80-year-old Columbia University Professor Andrew Nathan, who published “The Tiananmen Papers” on the 1989 Tiananmen Square democratization movement, was denied a visa to enter China. It is rumored that there are China experts in Korea who cannot visit the country due to the same visa restriction.

It is hard for foreign correspondents to work in China, too. I recently met a foreign correspondent who is ethnically Chinese and a British national. We deplored how challenging even the basic news gathering has become, including getting a comment from a Chinese expert.

In a political report to the party conference last year, the CPC pointed out that “human society is faced with unprecedented challenges due to growing deficits of peace, development, security and governance.” But it ignored the deficit of understanding. The Silk Road, blocked by the Great Wall, is losing its charm fast.