Talking Points, June 24 - July 6, 2011

During Locke’s confirmation hearing, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) argued that China’s government was enjoying great success in conveying its views and more generally introducing Chinese culture to Americans and others around the world through a number of means, including expanding international broadcasts and its Confucius Institutes. In an earlier report prepared by staff and during the hearing, Lugar complained that the US was falling behind China in public diplomacy. The US, he argued, needs to more effectively communicate its views to ordinary Chinese and to increase the number of Americans studying in China.

Locke pledged to work hard to reach ordinary Chinese, by blogging and by going on television and radio programs in China. Lugar encouraged Locke to work with him and others to ensure that Congress funds China-focused public diplomacy and education programs. This year, however, US officials have been looking to trim such budgets.

Government broadcasting

Zhong Shi, a former USC student now working as an anchor at CNC.

CCTV-9, an English network from China’s central state, is available from many US satellite and cable companies. This network as well as CCTV Chinese networks and the new China News Channel from Xinhua (China’s state news agency) are also available over-the-air via digital sub-channels in several large American cities. Xinhua’s new network was launched with great fanfare last July and last month the agency opened its new North American headquarters in New York’s Times Square. These are the latest examples of an international media push that China’s leaders initiated in 2009 and that includes print initiatives such as the US edition of China Daily. It was reported that China’s leaders were prepared to invest up to $6 billion to expand China’s global media reach.

In February, the US Broadcasting Board of Governors made its annual funding request to Congress. The BBG oversees the Voice of America, famous for its multilingual radio and television broadcasts. Millions of Chinese have relied on these often jammed broadcasts for news about America, China and the world. At present, the VOA broadcasts 12 hours a day in Mandarin and 2 hours a day in Cantonese. The BBG proposed saving $8 million by eliminating these broadcasts. Will these broadcasts be missed? Not by most Chinese, it seems. A 2008 survey put VOA Chinese language listenership at just one-tenth of 1%. The BBG believes that concentrating on web and mobile platforms will prove more effective. Earlier this year the British Broadcasting Corporation made the same calculation and ended its Mandarin broadcasts.

In an editorial, China Daily argued the VOA and BBC won’t be missed: “Instead of bridging the gap of information and understanding between peoples, very often their biased programs have created misunderstanding between the West and the East.”

Another BBG service, Radio Free Asia, would continue broadcasts in Mandarin, Cantonese, Uyghur, and Tibetan. In these broadcasts, RFA offers what is called “surrogate coverage,” meaning it offers coverage for “listeners who do not have access to full and free news media.” The RFA will take over frequencies currently used by the VOA. Some in Congress oppose cutting VOA Chinese language broadcasts. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) and others want to earmark $15 million for such broadcasts.

Recent cuts in the federal international education budgets

Last year, the U.S. Department of Education designated 20 national resource centers (NRCs) for East Asia. USC and UCLA share one such center. One program is fellowship only. The total allocation to these 21 programs for 2010-2011 was $11.3 million. A decade earlier, 18 East Asia national resource centers were allocated $5.3 million. This funding has been essential to America’s largest and most influential research and training centers on China. More than half of the American college students studying Chinese do so at these schools.

Next year’s allocation for these programs has been cut 22.6%. These centers’ fellowship programs will continue fully funded, but other efforts (for example, language initiatives, conferences, and publications) will be slashed.

Other U.S. Department of Education programs that help colleges establish Chinese language programs or individuals carry out research in China (for example, the Fulbright-Hays fellowships) have been eliminated for 2011-2012. The department’s grants to the 33 centers for international business education and research have been cut by 55%. USC’s CIBER, for example, is well known for its annual Asia Pacific Business Outlook conference which this March featured a keynote address by Gary Locke.

Reducing the US budget deficit is a priority, but cuts such as these have a direct, immediate, and negative impact on the ability of US institutions to strengthen Chinese language programs and deepen American knowledge of China.

As always we welcome your feedback. Please write to us at uschina@usc.edu.

Best wishes,
The USC US-China Institute
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