Stanford University

Crossing Heaven's Border

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Cover of the book "Crossing Heaven's Border," showing a defector looking at North Korea across the border with China.

From 2007 to 2011 South Korean filmmaker and newspaper reporter Hark Joon Lee lived among North Korean defectors in China, filming an award-winning documentary on their struggles. Crossing Heaven’s Border is the firsthand account of his experiences there, where he witnessed human trafficking, the smuggling of illicit drugs by North Korean soldiers, and a rare successful escape from North Korea by sea.

As Lee traces the often tragic lives of North Korean defectors who were willing to risk everything for their hopes, he journeys to Siberia in pursuit of hidden North Korean lumber mills; to Vietnam, where defectors make desperate charges into foreign embassies; and along the 10,000-kilometer escape route for defectors stretching from China to Laos and to Thailand. 
 

Desk, examination, or review copies can be requested through Stanford University Press.

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Karen Eggleston coedits special issue on China-India population ageing

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A rapidly aging population poses serious challenges for many countries around the world, particularly in Asia, home to the most populous countries. China and India account for nearly 36% of the world’s population, and are expected to face social and economic complications from demographic change in the next decades.

A special issue of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing explores these trends in a comparative perspective, “The Economic Implications of Population Ageing in China and India” (December 2014), co-edited by David Bloom, a professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, and Karen Eggleston, a Center Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

“Population ageing represents uncharted waters for China and India,” Bloom and Eggleston write in their coauthored introduction.

The special issue is a collection of 10 articles that examine the economic benefits and potential dilemmas arising from decreased fertility and increased life expectancy, two trends that will impact the development and future trajectories of China and India at the micro- and macroeconomic levels.

Dropping or continued low birth rates imply fewer young people to refresh the labor market. But will this cause the workforce to shrink to an unsustainable level? Demand will increase for health care, long term care, and other social services that support the elderly. What must the government do to ensure adequate access to care?

Empirical data and commentary presented in the special issue seek to inform stakeholders about emerging patterns, and to provide insight on how to best address related policy challenges going forward.

“By adopting responsive behaviors and consultative institutions that address the challenges of population ageing in ways that are appropriate to their unique circumstances, China and India could reap the full economic and social benefits of longer, healthier lives,” they write.

The special issue includes an introduction by Bloom and Eggleston, a feature interview with Richard Suzman, and additional analysis by noted global health experts following each article. The titles and authors of the 10 original research articles are listed below:

  • Intergenerational co-residence and schooling (Anjini Kochar)
  • Regional disparities in adult height, educational attainment, and late-life cognition: Findings from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) (Jinkook Lee, James P. Smith)
  • Healthy aging in China (James P. Smith, John Strauss, Yaohui Zhao)
  • Gender differences in cognition in China and reasons for change over time: Evidence from CHARLS (Xiaoyan Lei, James P. Smith, Xiaoting Sun, Yaohui Zhao)
  • Reprint of: Health outcomes and socio-economic status among the mid-aged and elderly in China: Evidence from the CHARLS national baseline data (Xiaoyan Lei, Xiaoting Sun, John Strauss, Yaohui Zhao, Gonghuan Yang, Perry Hu, Yisong Hu, Xiangjun Yin)
  • Should China introduce a social pension? (Bei Lu, Wenjiong He, John Piggott)
  • China’s age of abundance: When might it run out? (Yong Cai, Feng Wang, Ding Li, Xiwei Wu, Ke Shen)
  • The macroeconomic impact of non-communicable diseases in China and India: Estimates, projections, and comparisons (David E. Bloom, Elizabeth T. Cafiero-Fonseca, Mark E. McGovern, Klaus Prettner, Anderson Stanciole, Jonathan Weiss, Samuel Bakkila, Larry Rosenberg)
  • Economic development and gender inequality in cognition: A comparison of China and India, and of SAGE and the HRS sister studies (David Weir, Margaret Lay, Kenneth Langa)
  • Comparing the relationship between stature and later life health in six low and middle income countries (Mark E. McGovern)

The special issue of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing, vol. 4, pages 1-154 (December 2014) is available through Elsevier’s online platform ScienceDirect.

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Asia health policy scholar Karen Eggleston (Center Right) learns about a digital health information system in a visit to a primary care center in Hangzhou, China in Oct. 2014. | Robin Yao
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Rural School Principal Writes to Thank REAP

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REAP's biggest goal is to connect action-based research with effective policy change that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of China's rural poor families.  Our recently completed Teacher Performance Pay project was designed with policy change in mind.  Teacher performance pay addresses the low education quality and extremely high dropout rates found in rural schools by focusing on teachers and tying improved teaching to monetary incentives.

In 2009, the Chinese government launched a nationwide policy asking schools to implement teacher performance pay.  However, in 2012, REAP researchers found that almost half of rural schools still had not done so, and most programs that were in place did not lead to improved student achievement.  Therefore, REAP researchers tested three different teacher incentive designs, with the goal of identifying which scheme boosted student achievement the most.  Overall, the "Pay-for-Percentile" design, which rewarded teachers for focusing on low-achieving students in addition to high-achievers (thereby differing sharply from most incentive schemes that have been used in China) generated remarkable improvements in overall student test scores.

When the REAP team presented these results to the prefectural government in Tianshui, Gansu province, policymakers requested our support in upscaling the project over the next three years.  China Education Daily, a national newspaper published by the Department of Education with daily readership in the millions, also printed a feature article on REAP's findings.  

In response to this article, we recently received a handwritten letter from a principal working at a rural school in Anhui province requesting support in implementing REAP's successful teacher performance pay design in his school as well.  An English translation of his letter, which underscores the practical impact of teacher performance pay on the daily lives of students and education workers, is printed here:

"Dear Professor Shi,

"Forgive my intrusion, my name is Su Qi and I am the principal of Anhui Lixin County Qi Ming Secondary School, Zip: 236700 Tel: 13856881938.

"When I read an article in the China Education Daily about the research that your team has conducted on the "Pay for Percentiles Teacher Performance Pay Program” I became very excited. For many years we have been plagued by these same rural school management problems and now you have helped us to solve them; this is wonderful!  I can’t help but feel quite excited, so I wrote this letter.

"Our school is located in a nationally designated poverty county, and we are a rural secondary school. 98 percent of our students are rural children and 90 percent of students are left-behind children [left-behind by migrant parents]. Given this lack of parental care, the teachers are basically the students’ guardians. Due to a chronic lack of parental guidance, our students’ behavior is poor and their academic performance is even worse. It’s not that the teachers don’t want to teach well, it’s just that as soon as a student’s grades increase slightly their parents take them to a better ranked school in the county seat or the city. Every year we have fewer and fewer students.

"The teachers are helpless, and the school is even more helpless. As principal, I was very confused about how to stimulate the enthusiasm of our teachers. Now, the government has a performance pay policy for which they give us more than five thousand yuan each year and I try to use that money to stimulate the enthusiasm of our teachers. However, the national policy requires us to divide that money into different categories for "teaching ethics, ability, diligence, achievements, and integrity," with small amounts of money going to each category, so in the end there is no strong intervention and no real difference in pay for the best teachers and the worst teachers. This national performance pay policy cannot incentivize teachers. This is very disappointing.

"When I saw the research you had conducted about this topic I was very excited, especially because you found the program was successful. We really want to implement the “incentive program” that you designed and I hope that you can help us to do it. Thank you, thank you!!!

"Yours sincerely,

Su Qi

November 11, 2014"

 

Read Principal Qi's handwritten letter (in Chinese) and the China Education Daily article he refers to (in Chinese and English) below.

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Cybersecurity at the United Nations

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Abstract: With the development of cyber capabilities by an increasing number of states, policymakers as well as scholars have been calling for the negotiation of a new international treaty to regulate cyber warfare. This paper provides an account and analysis of relevant debates in the United Nations with a focus on the position of four states – Russia, China, the US and the UK. Discussions have been concentrated in the First Committee of the General Assembly which has been seized with the issue since 1998 when the Russian Federation submitted a proposal for an international convention to govern the use of information and communication technologies for military purposes. While these efforts towards a wholesale international treaty have not materialized, Russia and China continue to advocate a change in the legal status through the promulgation of additional norms. In contrast, the US and the UK have been firm supporters of applying current legal regimes, including the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions, to the use of cyber capabilities by states. In advancing these positions, two powerful narratives have emerged each emphasizing different aspects of the cybersecurity debate.

 

About the Speaker: Elaine Korzak is a postdoctoral cybersecurity fellow at CISAC. She earned her Ph.D from the Department of War Studies at King´s College London in 2014. Her thesis examined the applicability and adequacy of international legal frameworks to the emerging phenomenon of cyber attacks. Her analysis focused on two legal areas in particular: international law on the use of force and international humanitarian law. Elaine holds both an MA in International Peace and Security from King´s College London and an LL.M in Public International Law from the LSE. Her professional experience includes various governmental and non-governmental institutions, including NATO´s Cyber Defence Section as well as the European Commission´s Directorate-General on Information Society and Media.

 


Encina Hall (2nd floor)

Elaine Korzak Cybersecurity Fellow Speaker CISAC
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The Economist: Family Planners, Enforcing with a Smile

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An article in The Economist published on January 10th, 2015, explores the new direction taken by China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, focusing in particular on REAP's  Parenting Program as a part of this shift.

REAP's previous work on  baby nutrition revealed that rural babies in China are underperforming in terms of cognitive development, particularly in verbal portions of cognition tests.  The qualitative research we conducted as part of our baby nutrition project suggests that the developmental delays we have observed in rural babies may be excacerbated by the lack of interaction they typically receive from their caregivers or parents--only 5% of parents tell stories to their babies, and only 32% sing to them.

Therefore, REAP launched a Randomized Controlled Trial aimed at determining whether cognition scores improve among children whose parents receive training sessions on how to better engage their children on a day-to-day basis.  REAP enlisted our partners at China's National Health and Family Planning Commission--formerly engaged in enforcing the One Child Policy--to help carry out the weekly one-on-one sessions between caregivers and trainers.

Read more here.

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The Importance of Marine Fisheries and Ecosystems for Food Security In China

China plays a dominant role in the global seafood trade: its capture fisheries output is the highest in the world, estimated at 15.6 million tons in 2010, and its aquaculture production is three times as high (almost 48 million tons in 2010, roughly two-thirds of the world’s total production). The country also leads the world in aquafeed and fishmeal use, fishmeal imports, fish and shellfish consumption and seafood exports.

Pathways to Democracy: Taiwan's Lessons for China

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Authoritarian ruling parties are expected to resist democratization, often times at all costs. And yet some of the strongest authoritarian parties in the world have not resisted democratization, but have instead embraced it. This is because their raison d’etre is to continue ruling, though not necessarily to remain authoritarian. Put another way, democratization requires ruling parties hold free and fair elections, but not that they lose them. Authoritarian ruling parties can thus be incentivized to concede democratization from a position of exceptional strength. This alternative pathway to democracy is illustrated with Asian cases – notably Taiwan – in which ruling parties democratized from positions of considerable strength, and not weakness. The conceding-to-thrive argument has clear implications with respect to “candidate cases” in developmental Asia, where ruling parties have not yet conceded democratization despite being well-positioned to thrive were they to do so, such as the world’s most populous dictatorship, China.

 

Bio:

Joseph Wong is the Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Democratization, Health and Development. Professor Wong was the Director of the Asian Institute at the Munk School from 2005 to 2014. In addition to academic articles and book chapters, Professor Wong has published four books: Healthy Democracies: Welfare Politics in Taiwan and South Korea (2004) and Betting on Biotech: Innovation and the Limits of Asia’s Developmental State (2011), both published by Cornell University Press, as well as Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems: Learning to Lose, co-edited with Edward Friedman (Routledge, 2008), and Innovating for the Global South: Towards a New Innovation Agenda, co-edited with Dilip Soman and Janice Stein (University of Toronto Press, 2014). He is currently working on a book monograph with Dan Slater (University of Chicago) on Asia’s development and democracy, which is currently under contract with Princeton University Press. Professor Wong earned his Hons. B.A from McGill University (1995) and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2001). 

Philippines Conference Room, 3rd Floor, Encina Hall

616 Serra St., Stanford, CA

Joe Wong Professor and Canada Research Chair in Political Science University of Toronto
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Chinese Governance in the Age of Rising Expectations

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A new generation of leaders has taken the helm in China. They inherit a China that has experienced more than three decades of hyper growth. Yet the Chinese development model is being tested by growing imbalances even while the Chinese leadership faces growing public expectations at home and rising demand abroad. In this lecture, Professor Yang Dali will discuss the challenges to and prospects for China’s governance.

Dali Yang (Ph.D., Princeton, 1993) is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles on the politics and political economy of China. Among his books are Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition and the Politics of Governance in China (Stanford University Press, 2004); Beyond Beijing: Liberalization and the Regions in China (Routledge, 1997); and Calamity and Reform in China: State, Rural Society, and Institutional Change since the Great Leap Famine (Stanford University Press, 1996). He is also editor of Discontented Miracle: Growth, Conflict, and Institutional Adaptations in China (World Scientific, 2007) and co-editor and a contributor to Holding China Together: Diversity and National Integration in Post-Deng China (Cambridge University Press, 2004). He is a member of various committees and organizations and serves on the editorial boards of Asian Perspective, American Political Science Review, Journal of Contemporary China, and World Politics.

China’s Conflicting Policy Directions

A climate of uncertainty marks the Xi administration’s second year in power. The unfurling of a nationwide anti-corruption campaign, including high-profile domestic and international targets, may have unintended effects on economic growth. But will these effects be short- or long-lived? Can this campaign build confidence, domestically and internationally, in the party’s governing capacity? Questions also swirl around the motivations for reviving Mao-era language in the political realm while maintaining a relentless urbanization drive in the social and economic realms. In foreign affairs, centrifugal regional forces and suspicion of US intentions in the Pacific must be reconciled with China’s deepening engagement with global institutions and commitment to “opening up” to the world. To address these issues, this series will bring together experts to share research and insights on the underlying logic for the seemingly contradictory policy paths recently chosen by China’s leaders. 

Please note: this talk is off the record.

Philippines Conference RoomEncina Hall616 Serra St., 3rd floorStanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305
Dali Yang Professor University of Chicago
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China’s Conflicting Policy Directions
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