USC and China in the News, May and June 2011

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June 29, 2011: Vail Daily

USC political scientist Stanley Rosen was quoted in a story about the Confucius Institutes and language teaching. Rosen originally made the comments (“They steer away from… political issues, just to teach straight language. Because they know this is exactly what critics of China might be looking for”) when interviewed in 2009 by the Associated Press.

June 27, 2011: Voice of America

Clayton Dube of the USC US-China Institute was interviewed for a story on Chinese investment in the U.S. Dube noted that, “Everybody understands that the Chinese government has an extensive espionage operation in the United States, trying to acquire technology, trying to acquire key information.” 

June 26, 2011: The Korea Times

USC Korean Studies Institute director David Kang was interviewed for an article on the impact of China’s leadership succession on its relations with its neighbors. Kang said, “What I find most confusing about China’s recent behavior is that soothing statements made by political leaders are contradicted by actions almost at the same time…. Either there is no longer a coherent Chinese strategy for the region, or else there is more domestic infighting going on that we do not see from the outside.”

June 24, 2011: The Burbank Leader

An article reported that a team of USC students won a competition to design a ride based on the film UP for the Shanghai Disney theme park. Joe Rothenberg, Jannae Fong, and Molly Martens succeeded in the 20^th annual ImagiNations design competition.

June 24, 2011: Los Angeles Times

USC political scientist Stanley Rosen was quoted in an article about a new Chinese film, "Beginning of the Great Revival,” about the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Rosen said, "Unlike Hollywood, where profits and the bottom line are important, politics trumps everything in China…. It's an attempt to be a commercial film, but ultimately it's a political statement."

June 22, 2011: Fox Sports West

An article on the USC Marching Band’s drum major included comments from Tim Larson on his experience leading the band during performances at the Shanghai Expo in 2010. Larson said, "Even in a foreign country people realized that this was something special. I was meeting delegates from the US and China and taking pictures with everyone and their grandmother…. It was something bigger than I am."

June 21, 2011: Xinhua News Agency

USC political scientist Stanley Rosen was interviewed for a story about “Beginning of the Great Revival,” a film about the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. He said that for a film such as this, success is not measured in box office receipts.

June 21, 2011: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The USC US-China Institute documentary series Assignment: China was the subject of a story. Mike Chinoy, reporter for the series and a senior fellow of the institute, was interviewed and footage from the documentary was shown. Chinoy said that a relatively small number of reporters shaped American understanding of China.

June 19, 2011: National Public Radio

USC political scientist Stanley Rosen was quoted in a report about increasing Chinese investment in Hollywood. Rosen said,  "They are trying to get films made that present a somewhat different image of China than the one you read about in the paper — about buying resources in Latin America and Africa and all over the world, jailing Nobel Prize winners, that kind of thing."

June 15, 2011: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Mike Chinoy, senior fellow at the USC U.S.-China Institute, was interviewed about the institute’s documentary series “Assignment: China.” Chinoy is lead reporter on the series. The institute is looking at the role that American China journalism has played from the 1940s through the present day, Chinoy said. “What America-China correspondents have reported has had a very, very influential role, not only in shaping how Americans look at China, but how many people around the world look at China,” he added.

June 11, 2011: Phoenix News 凤凰网

USC students from China were among those interviewed for an article about summer internship experiences. Liu Xu of USC Annenberg School of Communications & Journalism and Yang, a USC Viterbi School of Engineering student, were quoted.

June 3, 2011: Business Insider

An article noted that USC alum Carson Block’s Muddy Waters research firm had released a report that caused Sino-Forest shares to plummet from $18 to $2.50. The drop may have cost John Paulson’s hedge fund hundreds of millions of dollars. Block is the co-author of Doing Business in China for Dummies.

May 27, 2011: CNN

Mike Chinoy of the USC US-China Institute was interviewed about North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s visit to China. Chinoy said, "All signs suggest the succession to Kim Jong Un is proceeding, and that the notion of a looming North Korean collapse remains, in my view, wildly exaggerated."

May 22, 2011: China Data Industry Net (中国IDC产业联盟网)

 

A report on China’s data industry development cited a USC study, which found that digital data exceeded analog data for the first time in 2002.

May 21, 2011: China Economic Review

In an op-ed, USC Marshall School of Business professor Baizhu Chen discussed rising labor costs in China. Chen argues that while such costs are rising and will continue to do so, there are still significant benefits to staying in China. He notes that many companies are working to enhance their production processes and to improve the technologies they employ. He concludes that there is a chance that labor costs in China will increase faster than the ability of producers there to move up the production value chain.

May 20, 2011: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Meiling Cheng of the USC School of Theatre was quoted in an article about the detention of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Cheng argues that singling Ai out is a mistake. “I do not feel…that we need to pay absolute respect to Ai Weiwei’s critique… He is one Chinese artist among many, one dissident among many.” She explains, “China is a complex country, not just a totalitarian regime determined to violate individual rights.”

May 17, 2011: World Journal (世界日报) 

Clayton Dube of the USC US-China Institute was quoted in a story about the rise of Chinese language instruction in American schools. The story also appeared in the Okezone, an Indonesian news site.

May 17, 2011: Los Angeles Times

A story about legislation requiring California election candidates to transliterate their names into Chinese, rather than adopting a Chinese name (for use on Chinese language ballots) included a quotation from Clayton Dube of the USC US-China Institute. Dube noted that Chinese is rich in homophones and that creative people will come up with clever names to convey particular messages.

May 6, 2011: Montreal Gazette

A story noted that Fu Chengyu, head of oil giant Sinopec and a member of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, is a USC alum.

May 5, 2011: Hong Kong Economic Journal & Forbes

Clayton Dube of the USC US-China Institute was quoted in an article about Chinese investment in the US. Dube noted that, “For many Americans and Chinese, Chinese FDI in the U.S. consists only of the sad CNOOC-UNOCAL dance or the successful transfer to Lenovo of IBM’s PC operation. In fact, in many communities large and small across the U.S., Chinese firms are opening up operations or acquiring businesses.”

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