Qing Gu, team leader for the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Poverty, Equity, and Governance unit in Beijing, China, spoke at CDDRL's Program on Human Rights on November 19, commenting on recent developments on rule of law in China. 

Gu is cautiously optimistic about the slow consolidation of the rule of law in China. Many positive programs have been put into place regarding law development in China, and Gu discussed the political implications that are behind these changes. While it is still a long way from being fully implemented, there has been a renewed focus on the rule of law under Xi Jinping’s leadership. Jinping has even equated the “Chinese Dream” with the “Dream of Constitutionalism.”

However, this has not been without controversy. A similar statement published in the South China Weekend in 2013 led to the newspaper’s recall by the government. Gu argues that this demonstrates that the Party is not yet ready to accept the rule of law.

China’s Fourth Plenum, a key governmental meeting that took place in October 2014, laid out what Gu called “a blueprint” for constitutional reform, rule of law and anti-corruption mechanisms for the judicial system and overall Party leadership. Gu’s hope is that this blueprint will be realized in the near future.

The talk concluded with a series of questions from the audience, ranging from philosophical questions regarding rule of law in China, to pragmatic questions concerning the “Western” media’s role in shaping U.S.-China relations and the impact of the rule of law on legal practitioners in China. In response, Gu pointed out that instituting the rule of law in the country requires deep restructuring of the system's foundations. However, she considers Confucianism to offer a compatible construction of the rule of law that will propel China’s moves to end corruption while still holding on to its rich cultural traditions that embody Chinese identity.

More than fifty former visiting fellows and scholars, and friends of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center joined faculty for a special evening at Stanford Center at Peking University, part of an inaugural gathering held in Beijing in October. Read more and view photos.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti visited SCPKU on November 20 and spoke at a conference focused on urbanization challenges and opportunities.  In addition to Mayor Garcetti, conference panelists included U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus and leadership from Stanford University, Peking University, the Los Angeles City Council, and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.  During the conference, the mayor shared key lessons Los Angeles has learned in terms of creating sustainable urban environments and offered support to China as it addresses its significant environmental challenges.  See SinovisionNet story (in Chinese).

China’s State Council has put forth draft legislation that would ban smoking in public spaces, part of the government’s larger advocacy efforts to help curb tobacco use nationwide. Matthew Kohrman, a professor of anthropology at Stanford University, said it’s a step forward but the ban’s long-term success would depend on local enforcement.

Despite popular belief, global cigarette production has tripled worldwide since the 1960s. Leading the surge has been China.

“China has become the world’s cigarette superpower,” said Kohrman, in an interview on National Public Radio’s program, Marketplace.

Moreover, local governments in China have become dependent on tax revenues generated from tobacco sales, thus reinforcing the cigarette’s ubiquity and ease of access.

China has implemented smoking bans in the past, but with varied success. Now rising healthcare costs caused by tobacco-related diseases are creating urgency for new regulations.

“Whether or not these new regulations will be enforced will, in the end, come down to local politics,” he said.

Matthew Kohrman is part of the Asia Health Policy Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, and leads the project, Cigarette Citadels, a peer-sourced mapping project that compiles more than 480 cigarette factories globally.

The full audioclip is available on the Marketplace website.

The Asia Pacific Journal of Education named REAP researchers Drs. Renfuo Luo, Yaojiang Shi, Linxiu Zhang, Scott Rozelle, and Brian Sharbono top cited authors for the period from 2008 to 2012 for their paper, "Malnutrition in China's rural boarding schools: the case of primary schools in Shaanxi Province."  Published in 2009, this paper documented and analyzed the nutrional intake and malnutrition status of boarding and non-boarding students in western rural China. 

The REAP research team analyzed two data sets on boarding schools and boarding students in Shaanxi Province, a representative province in western rural China.  They found that dormitory and student canteen facilities in boarding schools are under-equipped and services are poor quality and far below that needed for student development.  Specifically, students eating at school have much lower height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ) than those of non-boarding students, suggesting that poor services in boarding schools and inadequate nutrition intake may be an important cause of low student HAZ scores.  Importantly, their analysis demonstrated that improving the facilities and services of boarding schools in rural China is an effective way to decrease the inequality of health, malnutrition, and human capital between urban and rural areas.

Download the full article below.

The Technology and Engineering Study Tour in China (TECS) held a reception for Stanford, Peking University, and Tsinghua University engineering students at SCPKU on September 8.  Developed by the Stanford School of Engineering and the Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) in 2013, TECS is a program that gives Stanford engineering students – both undergraduates and graduate students - a window to understand technology and engineering businesses in China.  This year, 21 students participated along with one faculty lead and one Ph.D. student lead.  Between late August and mid-September, the team paid visits to 14 Chinese companies spread across industries including automotive, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, design, hardware, and software/IT.   The SCPKU reception gave Stanford students the chance to interact with their counterparts from Peking University and Tsinghua University and discuss a wide range of issues including student life and entrepreneurship. Refer to Stanford School of Engineering’s Global Engineering Programs website for more information.

In November and December of this year, REAP researchers are working with our partners at the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE) to teach a 5-week intensive graduate course on impact evaluation at Shaanxi Normal University.  CEEE aims to raise the quality and effectiveness of education policy and projects throughout China by not only conducting actionable research, but also educating the next generation of scholars on the importance of evidence-based action and the core principles and methodology of impact evaluation.  Founded in January of 2014, CEEE has successfully established a new department of Experimental Economics in Education--with 24 Master's students and 3 PhD students in its first class of students--at Shaanxi Normal University, and will be expanding enrollment at this same rate over the next two years.  This intensive course on impact evaluation forms a core part of the curriculum for these students, and also attracted a number of students from REAP partner institutions across China.

Taught by REAP faculty, this graduate course covers all aspects of impact evaluation, from statistics and STATA to project design and randomization.  Launching this course marks a significant step forward in REAP's efforts to expand quality impact evaluation in China, thereby contributing to REAP's overarching goal of using evidence-based research to bring about effective and cost-efficient education policies and programs for the benefit of rural China's children.