Thursday 26 November 2009

China scholars' self-censorship

Last week a US report on China grabbed media headlines.
China ramps up espionage against US: study

What I find very important and worth paying more attention is the following paragraph about western China scholars self-censorship:

The commission also found that China has launched an effort to influence US think-tanks and academia by rewarding scholars with access and depriving visas to more critical voices.
"It becomes self-censorship. If you're in graduate school and want to become a China scholar, you need to go to China. And if you criticize the Chinese government on certain things, you won't get in," said Bartholomew, a former top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"What it means is that we have a generation of China analysts who are being created who don't necessarily have the freedom or the ability to think through a broader range of questions," she said.

No comments: