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The Wall Street Journal: OECD Says Education is the Key Obstacle in Narrowing the Urban/Rural Income Gap in China

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BEIJING—The increase in inequality in China has leveled off in recent years and could be less severe than previously thought, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says, suggesting that Beijing is starting to make progress in tackling one of its biggest social problems.

The OECD, in its economic survey of China published Tuesday, said more welfare spending in rural areas and increased migration to cities helped arrest a widening of the income gap. The Paris-based organization urged China to lower what is still a fairly high level of inequality by further boosting social programs and eliminating discrimination against rural residents.

The report is the OECD's second major study of China, which isn't a member of the organization. China's economy is on pace to surpass Japan this year as the world's second-biggest after the U.S. The OECD urged China to take a range of measures to liberalize its economy, such as freeing up interest rates to encourage banks to lend more to small companies, and privatizing state-owned enterprises. It also said that allowing the currency to appreciate would help the government manage the economy better.

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Special Panel Discussion within our Democracy in Taiwan Program

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Dan Blumenthal is a resident fellow at American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a current commissioner and former vice chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, where he directs efforts to monitor, investigate, and provide recommendations on the national security implications of the economic relationship between the two countries. Previously, he was senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Secretary of Defense's Office of International Security Affairs and practiced law in New York prior to his government service. At AEI, in addition to his work on the national security implications of U.S.-Sino relations, he coordinates the Tocqueville on China project, which examines the underlying civic culture of post-Mao China. Mr. Blumenthal also contributes to AEI's Asian Outlook series.

Kao-cheng Wang received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Pennsylvania. He is Professor and former Director of Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, Tamkang University, Taipei.

Suisheng Zhao is Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies and Executive Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation, University of Denver. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the US Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and a Research Associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China.

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Dan Blumenthal Fellow Speaker American Enterprise Institute
Kao-cheng Wang Professor, Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies Speaker Tamkang University
Suisheng Zhao Professor, Graduate School of International Studies Speaker University of Denver
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Digging in Deep: Carbon Capture and Storage Technology in China is Driven by Energy Security Concerns

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Real Drivers of Carbon Capture and Storage in China and Implications for Climate Policy

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Real Drivers of Carbon Capture and Storage in China and Implications for Climate Policy
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August 2009
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Gang He
Varun Rai
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The Challenges of China's ICT Policies

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Since the inception of reform and opening-up thirty years ago, China has established a record of astonishing economic achievements and is, or will soon be, surpassing Japan as the world's second largest economy, something few people would have imagined three decades ago.

The information and communications technologies (ICT) industry is the backbone of the Chinese export driven growth strategy, which many argue as the primary driver of China's economic growth. Recent ICT policy initiatives demonstrate China's shifting strategy in pursuing a different path for the next phase of economic growth.

Promoting indigenous innovation and strengthening information security may be considered the two major thrusts of Chinese ICT policy initiatives. Technical standards, IPR treatments, government procurement, and special industry incentives are some examples of the former domain; internet filtering, compulsory certification of information security product, and encryption control are examples of the latter.

Many of these initiatives are controversial in the international trade arena. However, the real challenges of these policy initiatives concern whether they work to achieve the Chinese government's goal of maintaining sustainable growth. This presentation will attempt to evaluate these challenges.

Dr. John C. Chiang was appointed as Director of Global Innovation Research Center at Peking University in June 2008. He joined PKU in February 2006 as Professor in the Department of Management of Technology at the School of Software and Microelectronics. Dr. Chiang is also President of USITO, the organization representing five major US IT industry trade associations and close to 50 individual U.S. IT companies in China, a role he has held since October 2008.

Dr. Chiang came to China in 2000, joining Motorola China as Deputy GM of the infrastructure business unit, spearheading its post-WTO strategy. He then moved to Motorola China HQ, serving as Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development. In 2003, he served as Director of Motorola China R&D Institute, and in 2004, he became the founding president of Motorola (China) Technologies, Limited.

From October 2006 to September 2008, Dr. Chiang was a Partner in DragonBridge Capital, a U.S.-based merchant bank with China as its primary serving market.

Dr. Chiang was born in Beijing, raised in Taiwan, and received the Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1975. He received the EMBA from Georgia State University in 1989.

After his academic career, Dr. Chiang joined Bell Laboratories in 1979, and later held progressive technical and managerial positions at Racal-Milgo, Hayes, and GTE. He was Senior Vice President of Operations at KG Telecom and led the launch of the first private mobile services in Taiwan, during 1997-2000.

Dr. Chiang currently also serves as the Vice Chair of the China Association of Standards and as an Investment Advisor to the Beijing Municipal Government.

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John C. Chiang Director, Global Innovation Research Center Speaker Peking University
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A Panel Discussion: Taiwan's Participation in the International Community under President Ma

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In this panel discussion, three leading scholars in the field of China and Taiwan studies will examine recent developments and future prospects for Taiwan's participation in international organizations, from the World Health Assembly to a range of other UN-affiliated and other international organizations (including new and less formal groupings such as the Community of Democracies).  More broadly, this panel discussion will examine how Taiwan is now trying to, and might in the near future, engage the international community and international organizations, in an era when relations across the strait are thawing but Beijing is still actively limiting Taiwan's international space.

Dan Blumenthal is a resident fellow at American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a current commissioner and former vice chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, where he directs efforts to monitor, investigate, and provide recommendations on the national security implications of the economic relationship between the two countries. Previously, he was senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Secretary of Defense's Office of International Security Affairs and practiced law in New York prior to his government service. At AEI, in addition to his work on the national security implications of U.S.-Sino relations, he coordinates the Tocqueville on China project, which examines the underlying civic culture of post-Mao China. Mr. Blumenthal also contributes to AEI's Asian Outlook series.

Kao-cheng Wang received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Pennsylvania. He is Professor and former Director of Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, Tamkang University, Taipei.

Suisheng Zhao is Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies and Executive Director of the Center for China-US Cooperation, University of Denver. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the US Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and a Research Associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary China.

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Dan Blumenthal Resident Fellow Speaker American Enterprise Institute
Kao-cheng Wang Professor Speaker Tamkang University
Suisheng Zhao Professor Speaker University of Denver

Larry Diamond

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Stanford University
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Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science and Sociology
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Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is also professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford, where he lectures and teaches courses on democracy (including an online course on EdX). At the Hoover Institution, he co-leads the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region and participates in the Project on the U.S., China, and the World. At FSI, he is among the core faculty of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which he directed for six and a half years. He leads FSI’s Israel Studies Program and is a member of the Program on Arab Reform and Development. He also co-leads the Global Digital Policy Incubator, based at FSI’s Cyber Policy Center. He served for 32 years as founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy.

Diamond’s research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy and on U.S. and international policies to defend and advance democracy. His book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the United States and around the world at this potential “hinge in history,” and offers an agenda for strengthening and defending democracy at home and abroad.  A paperback edition with a new preface was released by Penguin in April 2020. His other books include: In Search of Democracy (2016), The Spirit of Democracy (2008), Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999), Promoting Democracy in the 1990s (1995), and Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria (1989). He has edited or coedited more than fifty books, including China’s Influence and American Interests (2019, with Orville Schell), Silicon Triangle: The United States, China, Taiwan the Global Semiconductor Security (2023, with James O. Ellis Jr. and Orville Schell), and The Troubling State of India’s Democracy (2024, with Sumit Ganguly and Dinsha Mistree).

During 2002–03, Diamond served as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was a contributing author of its report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest. He has advised and lectured to universities and think tanks around the world, and to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other organizations dealing with governance and development. During the first three months of 2004, Diamond served as a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. His 2005 book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, was one of the first books to critically analyze America's postwar engagement in Iraq.

Among Diamond’s other edited books are Democracy in Decline?; Democratization and Authoritarianism in the Arab World; Will China Democratize?; and Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy, all edited with Marc F. Plattner; and Politics and Culture in Contemporary Iran, with Abbas Milani. With Juan J. Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset, he edited the series, Democracy in Developing Countries, which helped to shape a new generation of comparative study of democratic development.

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Former Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Faculty Chair, Jan Koum Israel Studies Program
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Democratic Reform in China: Personal Reflections

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Professor Li Liangdong is currently the Department Head of the Central Party School's Politics and Law Department. He directly advises senior officials in the Chinese Communist Party. Professor Li received his doctorate from the Central Party School in Law.  His main research areas are: democratic perspective, Western political thought, and political theory.

Some of his key works include: Contemporary Chinese Studies of Public Opinion (Central Party School Press, 1996), Mao Zedong and Chinese Farmers (China Farmers Press, 1993), Contemporary Chinese Democracy Studies (Contemporary World Press, 2001 edition), and Third Wave and the Chinese Democracy (Central Party School Press, 2001 edition). He has published over 300 articles.  Professor Li has hosted discussions on topics including "Public Discussion in China," "Societal Transitions", and "Study of Political Stability"

Co-sponsored by the Center for Deliberative Democracy

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The Application of Article 121 of the Law of the Sea Convention to the Disputed Offshore Islands in East Asia

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Dr. Songs talk will focus on the question concerning interpretation and possible application of Article 121 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in particular its third paragraph, to the selected disputed offshore islands or rocks that are situated in the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. A number of recent developments occurred in the East Asian waters that are relevant to or have the potential to give rise to the problem of interpretation and application of the said article will first be cited. Then, a brief summary of the development of the "Regime of Islands" at UNCLOS III will be given, focusing in particular on those proposals made by the participating delegations to amend or delete entirely Article 121(3) of UNCLOS. The views of the law of the sea experts on interpretation and application of Article 121(3) will be examined. Several selected examples of state practices with regard to the application or interpretation of Article 121(3) will then be provided. This is to be followed by discussing the interpretation and possible application of Article 121(3) to the selected disputed offshore islands that are situated in the East Asian waters. Finally, several suggestions for possible amendment to Article 121 or policy measures to help deal with the confusion found in Article 121(3) will be offered.

Yann-huei Song received his undergraduate degree from National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, a Master's degree in Political Science from Indiana State University, Indiana, USA, a LL.M. degree from the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall), Berkeley, California, USA, a doctoral degree in International Relations from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA, and a JSD degree from the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall), Berkeley.

Following graduation from Kent State University, Dr. Song taught at Department of Political Science, Indiana State University as Assistant Professor in 1988. He then returned to his country and taught as an Associate Professor at Institute of Maritime Law, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan in 1990. Currently, Dr. Song is a research fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan, and distinguished professor of the Graduate Institute of International Politics at National Ching Hsing University (NCHU), Taichung, Taiwan. He is also dean of the Office of International Affaris at NCHU.

Dr. Song's research interests are in the fields of International Law of the Sea, International Fisheries Law, International Environmental Law, National Ocean Policy Study, Naval Arms Control and Maritime Security. He has published articles in journals such as Political Geography Quarterly, Asian Survey, Marine Policy, Chinese Yearbook of International Law and Affairs, Issues and Studies, The American Asian Review, Ocean Development and International Law, EurAmerica, Ecology Law Review, the International Journal of Coastal and Marine Law, The Indonesian Quarterly and others.

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Stanford University
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Yann-huei Song Distinguished Professor the Graduate Institute of International Politics Speaker National Chung Hsing University, Taichung
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REAP Summer "Fresh" Training Course for Migrant School Teachers Opens in Beijing

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The Summer "Fresh" 2009 training course for migrant school teachers opened today at Zhongchu Hotel and Training Center, near Bajiao, with a talk by Brian Sharbono from Stanford University, the Managing Director of the Rural Education Action Project (REAP).

Summer "Fresh" is an English training course sponsored by REAP and offered to English teachers from dozens of migrant schools in Beijing. The three week, six days per week, intensive course will provide the migrant teachers a refresher in English grammar, practice in spoken English, and sessions dedicated to the pedagogy of teaching English.

Sharbono spoke on the importance of the education of migrant children in the context of China's education system and it's importance for China's economic development. Linxiu Zhang, Deputy Director of the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of REAP-China also discussed the background and motivation for the training.

The 35 teachers invited to the event were randomly selected by REAP from a subgroup of more than 100. Prior to the training REAP gave a standardized English test to the 35 "selected" teachers, the 65 "not selected"  teachers and all of their students. REAP will retest all teachers and students at the end of the fall semester to see whether "training the teachers" makes a lasting difference.

Clear from the first day sessions is that the teachers' morale is high. After the opening talks, the migrant teachers, who will be living together during the three weeks, introduced themselves one by one. Nearly all expressed great appreciation for the invitation to attend.

"I have looked for a long time for an opportunity to improve my English teaching, because I want to better help the children in my classes," explained one participant, drawing enthusiastic applause from the audience. "But training is either very expensive or not available. So, I am very happy to be here and very thankful for this opportunity!"

Three trainers will lead the classes. Lisa Yiu, a PhD student from Stanford University School of Education, is an experienced teacher who researches issues of migrant education. Beijing-based, Diana Diao has more than 25 years of experience teaching English to students at all levels and training English teachers. Adam Ma, is a lecturer in the English Department at Capital Normal University, Beijing, and a PhD student in applied linguistics at Beijing Normal University.

Summer “Fresh” 2009 is a collaborative project of Stanford University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Center for Cultural Development of Migrant Children in Beijing and Renmin University. Volunteers from several universities and institutions are assisting.

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REAP Summer "Fresh" Training Course for Migrant School Teachers Successfully Closes

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The Summer "Fresh" English Teacher Training Program, held from July 20, 2009 to August 9, 2009, aimed to raise the educational quality of migrant schools by improving the English knowledge and teaching skills of migrant school English teachers. The training team for this program consisted of English teachers from the United States, English teachers trained in China and volunteers from various universities and institutions—from both China (Renmin University and PKU) and the United States (Stanford University). The training focused on English proficiency, English teaching skills and English conversational skills. After three weeks intensive training courses, almost all of the students successfully graduated from Summer Fresh and achieved progress in different aspects.

To honor their hard work, some were awarded Certificates of Distinction.

summer fresh teacher diao
Shuqin Diao, who was the grammar teacher for Summer Fresh, started with 6 lessons of grammar and vocabulary per day. When she sensed the students were mastering the content, she accelerated to 8 lessons per day. With homework to boot, students did not have much night life. Students had a final grammar test at the end of the class which served to evaluate their work during the three weeks. According to the ranking from test, Shaofang Cheng, Youwei Li and Guocun Xiao were awarded *1st Place, 2nd Place* and *3rd Place* in their "English Grammar" Class.

summer fresh teacher 1
Lisa Yiu, a Stanford Ph.D. student and former teacher from Los Angeles, lit up the days of the students as their English conversation instructor. She had them playing Bingo, doing Skits and Singing Songs. "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and many other songs were heard up and down the halls of the training facility. Not only did students improve their English conversation skills, but they also made friends with each other. In the end, three of them- Kequan Hou, Hui Huang and Li Zhang- were awarded *Excellence in English Pronunciation* for the "English Pronunciation" Class.

summer fresh teacher ma
Last, but not least, Adam Ma opened the student's eyes to the world of the Theory and Practice of Being a Teacher. One of the most interesting lessons was one that divided the students into 5 groups to present a group "Lesson Plan" during the last week. During their hour "on stage," each groups presented a joint "lesson plan." Because of their impressive presentations, 3 students namely Jinyan Bu, Feng Li and Si Gao were awarded *Excellence in Teaching*, the *Greatest Potential* and *Best Teacher Presenter *for the "Theory and Practice of Teaching English" Class.

As Summer Fresh ended, the students and teachers and volunteeres all agreed, the goal of improving the English proficiency of the migrant teachers was achieved. In addition, teachers learned invaluable lessons in English teaching skills. But, perhaps most importantly, the entire class made new friends and have acquired a deeper grasp of English knowledge which we hope will make a difference in the lives of their migrant students.

 

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