USC and China in the News, November and December 2008

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December 3, 2008: World Journal (世界日报)

An article focused on economist Calla Wiemer's presentation, "China's Place in the Global Financial Crisis" at the USC U.S.-China Institute. Wiemer rejected the view that the China should be seen as a cause of the crisis. She said the exchange rate issue is overblown. Wiemer, a consultant for the Asian Development Bank, focused on how Chinese exports to the U.S. and elsewhere expanded dramatically after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. China's vast foreign reserves cannot rescue the global financial system, Wiemer said. But she was optimistic that the Chinese government's stimulus package can help increase domestic consumption in China and therefore help the global economy. She noted that the American government also needs to find a way to stimulate the economy.

December 2, 2008: China Daily

An article about famed film director Chen Kaige's plans to direct a movie about Mei Lanfang, the most famous Beijing Opera star of the 20th century mentioned that Mei received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern California.

December 2, 2008: World Journal (世界日报）

Clayton Dube, USC U.S.-China Institute (USCI) associate director, and Stanley Rosen, USC political scientist and USCI were interviewed for a story on President-Elect Barack Obama's nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Neither anticipate significant changes in the U.S.-China relationship as both sides need each other to address pressing problems. Dube noted that Clinton’s Senate experience and her proven record mobilizing ordinary Americans may be helpful in getting Congressional and popular support for the administration’s foreign policy aims. Rosen noted that Democrats have pushed harder than Republicans on the need to protect workers and on other issues such as the value of China’s currency.

December 2, 2008: Xinhua News Agency

USC political scientist and East Asian Studies Center director Stanley Rosen and USC U.S.-China InstituteI's Clayton Dube were quoted about the significance of Hillary Clinton’s secretary of state nomination for the U.S.-China relationship. "There is no benefit at all to alienate China. I do not think there will be dramatic changes in the relations between the two countries," Rosen said. Dube noted that priority had to be given to addressing economic and security challenges. "In solving some of those issues, there needs [to be] closer cooperation with China. I think that over time, the Obama Administration will be a little bit more vigorous in pushing China on a number of issues, but I do not expect overall the relationship to change," Dube said.

December 2008: Fast Company

Qingyun Ma, dean of the USC School of Architecture, was the subject, along with Hitoshi Abe, dean of the UCLA School of Architecture, was profiled. The article focused on Ma's notion that architecture should be impermanent. Ma said, "Preservation is an action in sacrifice of future possibilities. The future needs its own space." Ma is working to tie Los Angeles and the training of architects to China and the rest of Asia. He set up the American Academy in China this past summer. Ma argued, "The elites from other cultures have been educated in the United Sates, but American leaders are never educated in other places.... If America wants to maintain its position, it has to shift. It can't just be about muscle, but about leadership in the arts and the humanities."

November 27, 2008: People's Daily (人民日报)

Clayton Dube of the USC U.S.-China Institute was interviewed about the policies President-elect Obama and his new cabinet might implement toward China. Dube said that he thought the need for the U.S. administration to focus on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and on economic matters and the need to secure Chinese cooperation on dealing with the financial crisis and a number of other issues would preclude major policy shifts toward China. Dube raised questions, however, about the impact China's stimulus package was likely to have on the central challenge for China's leaders: raising domestic spending. Because the economic downturn would negatively affect demand for Chinese products abroad, it is essential that the government find ways to boost domestic spending. Dube compared the Chinese government's focus on spending on infrastructure to Japanese government efforts in the 1990s to end the recession there and said it was unlikely to have as positive an impact as leaders hoped.

November 24, 2008: Reuters

American youth trail kids in China’s Macao Special Administrative Region and several other countries and regions in access to the internet, reports this story based on a study by USC’s Center for the Digital Future. The Center found that 96% of young people aged 12 to 14 in Macao. In the United States only 88% of kids that age had access. The highest scoring country surveyed was Britain, where 100% of 12-14 year olds used the internet and Israel where the figure was 98%. The Czech Republic tied Macao at 96%. The Center survey was conducted in late 2007 and early 2008 and involved researchers talking to 25,000 people in 13 countries and regions. 

November 23, 2008: China News

The USC U.S.-China Institute’s Clayton Dube was among those interviewed about the possible impact Hillary Clinton’s selection as secretary of state might have on US-China relations. Dube said he was among those who were pleasantly surprised by the choice and by Clinton’s acceptance. He noted that the new foreign policy team must focus first on Iraq and Afghanistan and on addressing the ongoing tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Dube expects the Obama administration will focus on finding ways to work with the Chinese to address trade and climate change problems. He does not expect a change in American policy toward resolving China-Taiwan tensions. The Obama administration will likely continue America’s stated policy of opposing any effort by either side to unilaterally change the status quo and not interfering in efforts by the two sides to address their differences.

November 21, 2008: Asia the Journal of Commerce and Culture

A story highlighted a USC U.S. China sponsored talk exploring the ancient Chinese concept of "Tianxia" by William A. Callahan, a University of Manchester professor. Professor Callahan is also the chair of his university's international politics and Chinese studies and co-director of the British Inter-University China Center and has taught all over Asia.  The event focused on the concept of the Tianxia system, which according to Professor Callahan said is crucial in understanding how China would order the world if it successfully overtakes the United States in becoming the dominant power.  Callahan also explained that the important impact of this system would be mostly on China's domestic politics and not on the world stage.

November 16, 2008: Singtao Daily

Ted Lieu, a member of the California State Assembly, Yue Rong, of the California EPA, and Clayton Dube, of the USC U.S.-China Institute, were among those speaking at the Third Annual Asian American Environmental Symposium. Lieu opened the symposium stressing California’s influence on the rest of the nation in environmental measures, highlighting the state’s efforts to establish more stringent greenhouse gas restrictions than the federal government. Rong, concluded the symposium noting the everyday measures that Chinese can take to reduce waste, namely utilizing more environmentally friendly bags for groceries. Dube stressed the serious consequences of pollution in China, for example the 350,000-400,000 premature deaths that occur there each year because of air pollution. He noted that Chinese are extremely concerned about this problem and that there are huge economic costs associated with pollution. Dube noted that the U.S. and China had initiated a number of cooperative environmental studies and protection projects. Japan, Dube said, was doing even more, funding efforts in China, partly out of recognition that China’s pollution problems were already affecting Japan.

November 16, 2008: World Journal

California Assemblyman Ted Lieu and USC U.S.-China Institute associate director Clayton Dube were among the speakers at the Third Annual Asian American Environmental Symposium held at USC. Lieu called for more people to become “environmental warriors.” He noted that California’s economic future depends in part on developing “green” technologies to save energy and protect the environment. Dube noted that China’s economic rise has been accompanied by serious pollution problems that have global repercussions.

November 15, 2008: Voice of America

David Bachman, University of Washington scholar, discussed how the financial crisis and U.S. election may impact U.S.-China relations at a USC U.S.-China Institute event. Bachman does not expect large changes in the U.S.-China relationship, though China’s financial strength could allow it to push for changes in the international financial system. He does believe that Obama’s election sends a positive message to Chinese about America and about democracy. Clayton Dube, associate director of USCI, was also interviewed for the story and amplified the importance of the Obama election. He noted how many people interviewed by reporters in Beijing and elsewhere expressed amazement that an African American could be elected, an event that fundamentally challenged what they had heard about discrimination in America. Liu Qing, a visiting scholar at USCI, was also interviewed, noting that democratization takes time and is a process. He noted that China’s adoption of mandatory retirements for leaders and acceptance of international conventions represented steps in that process. 

November 14, 2008: World Journal

USC U.S.-China Institute event in advance of the G-20 economic summit was the focus of an article. The article noted that Washington international relations specialist David Bachman believes U.S.-China ties are unlikely to become troublesome in the near future. The Obama administration will need to work with China on nonproliferation challenges in North Korea and Iran. Bachman believes that Obama is more likely to seek cooperation than confrontation with the Chinese government. At the same time, Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress may be more forceful in pushing other governments into discussions about democracy and human rights.

November 13, 2008: New York Times

The Green Inc. blog focused on USC Viterbi School of Engineering professor Yan Xiao research into bamboo. The entry noted that Xiao’s bamboo bridge in Leiyang, China is the first of its kind and has been in use since December. It noted how Xiao used bamboo to assemble housing for those displaced by the massive May earthquake in Sichuan.

November 11, 2008: Popular Science

Yan Xiao of the USC Viterbi School as part of the magazine's “Best of What’s New ’08” edition. In 2006, Xiao devised GluBam, bamboo timber sturdy enough to be used for beams and trusses. Last winter, he went to China and, using just an eight-man crew and no machinery, built a 33-foot GluBam bridge capable of supporting eight tons in the remote Hunan province town of Leiyang. The feat was so surprising, it was covered on China’s national news, the story noted. Since then, Xiao has been busy building GluBam houses and classrooms in parts of Sichuan leveled by earthquakes. But he hopes that GluBam’s most positive effect will be an overhaul of the bamboo industry itself, the story stated. “That was the intent all along,” Xiao said. “This could open a vast market. It could create a whole new source of money and jobs.”

November 7, 2008: Huffington Post

The USC U.S.-China Institute Election '08 and the Challenge of China documentary was cited in a column on President-elect Obama and policies toward China. Top Obama China advisor Jeffrey Bader's comments on wanting a China "plays by the rules" in the documentary were quoted.

November 7, 2008: Sohu

A joint project between USC and the Communication University of China was highlighted. The Documenting the Global City (translated as "shooting" the global city at this event) brings USC and CUC student filmmakers together each summer and affords them the opportunity to collaborate in pairs to produce short documentaries. (A grant from the USC U.S.-China Institute provides partial support for the program.)

November 6, 2008: People’s Daily

USC and the Communication University of China’s joint documentary film project was highlighted in an article. The cooperative project involves students from the two schools working collaboratively each summer to produce short documentaries for the “Documenting the Global City” series. [The project is partially funded by grants from the USC U.S.-China Institute.] The most recent six films, produced in Los Angeles in summer 2008, were screened in Beijing. The films are entitled: American Lesson, Underwater Neverland, Lost Angles, A Wacko Wonderland, Flip and Move, and Other. USC Cinematic Arts professors Mark Harris and Marsha Kinder guide the project.

November 6, 2008: Energy Tribune

An article discussed the 2005 effort by the China National Overseas Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to purchase El Segundo-based UNOCAL. CNOOC was and is headed by Fu Chengyu, who was trained as a petroleum engineer at USC. The article notes that Fu is one of the few oil executives to have been trained in the U.S.

November 4, 2008: Los Angeles Times

David Wertheimer, head of the USC Entertainment Technology Center, was quoted in an article discussing Warner Brothers decision to collaborate with a Chinese web company, Union Voole Technology, in offering newly released films via the web. These downloads would be priced at a dollar or less to undercut widespread piracy. Warner Brothers and Sony will also make television shows available via the Chinese site. An email from Wertheimer was quoted, "It breaks many of the rules... Time will tell how it worked, but one thing that heartens me is that the studios are not doing what the music industry did; instead they are out there taking risks."

November 3, 2008: Radio Australia

Michael Parks, USC professor of journalism and international relations, was interviewed. Parks said, "If the United States moves from a spend/consume economy to a save/invest economy as I think it should, it's going to have an impact up and down Asia. Not only to our immediate suppliers, China, but to everybody who supplies China. " And he went on to say, "I think whoever gets in has to deal with China as an equal partner across the Asia Pacific region, that is the era of big power, here's what we're going to do, we're going to tell you. That's over and we have to move beyond that." 
 

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