The Yale Free Press

Is Yale kowtowing to the Chinese? Clearly, the university has followed a policy of engagement towards the most populous nation in the world. When the Secretary’s Office announced the imminent arrival of President Hu Jintao, the atmosphere at Yale was electric. The administration lauded the occasion as a glorious moment in Yale’s history. Students scrambled to obtain the elusive tickets to see the man who rules 1.3 billion people. To the elation of many students, Dean Salovey cancelled most classes for security reasons. The hype was understandable. but should Yale be cultivating such a relationship with one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world? Perhaps it is more an indication of the university’s inability to take a stand on sensitive issues that the Communist leader chose to visit only Yale among the many other elite institutions in the United States. Although this may be the initial reaction, Yale may be more effective at destroying the Communist stronghold than many might think.

This past summer if the War on Terror and the London bombings were not on people’s minds, the rise of China and the question of its intentions dominated the headlines. The Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, The New Republic, US News and World Report, and The Economist all had China’s power emergence as their cover story within the span of a month. Specific incidents touched off a flurry of this kind of media activity. In July, a Chinese offshore oil company attempted to buy Unocal, an American oil giant. The $19 billion bid raised a storm on Capitol Hill, unleashing the conservative China-bashers who did not trust Chinese intentions. In August, a high-ranking Chinese general warned of nuclear war with the United States, affirming the perceptions of war-mongering skeptics that deadly confrontation between the two world powers is inevitable. The Department of Defense also issued its annual Pentagon report on the Chinese military, citing the country’s military buildup as unwarranted and a cause for alarm.

President Bush and his Secretary of State have been relatively quiet in regards to China’s rise, frequently prefacing their remarks by describing the relationship as “highly complex.” In the long-run, China’s nascent emergence onto the world stage has three possible outcomes. The first is that China will emerge as a peaceful superpower, adapting itself by establishing liberal institutions. The second is that China will crumble under its own weight of internal contradictions. Finally and most ominously, China will transform into a dangerous and formidable foe of the United States.

It is then important and relevant to consider what role educational institutions like Yale play in determining the outcome and thereby shaping the Sino-US relationship. Yale, more than any other university in recent years, has made a strategic effort to reach out to China. In 2001, Levin met with President Jiang Zemin and toured three of the most prestigious universities in the mainland. In 2003, he received an honorary doctorate from Peking University. This year, Yale enrolled twenty one students from Fudan University in Shanghai in a six week educational program. Yale also hosted university presidents from prestigious Chinese universities, introducing them to what a liberal college does and ways of implementing a liberal arts program. This is not to mention the many joint research centers Yale and Chinese universities have established. More than any other international student group, Chinese students studying at Yale number more than three hundred. More than five hundred Yalies study Chinese every year, and Yale students have an enormous presence in Chinese universities through the Light Fellowship and other programs.

Although US policy can certainly shape the relationship, the exchange of ideas and Chinese exposure to Western thought and liberal concepts, such as the rule of law and tradition of free speech, are the less noticeable but more powerful forces that will eventually modernize and bring down the Communist dictatorship. Close to one hundred years ago, a Western educated man by the name of Sun Yat-sen led a revolutionary movement that overthrew the oppressive Qing monarchy. However, the seeds of the revolution were planted less than sixty years before that in 1854, when Yung Wing graduated from Yale as the first Chinese individual to graduate from an American university. In 1872, he successfully petitioned the Qing government to send 120 students to secondary schools in the Connecticut Valley. Many ended up graduating from Yale, eventually returning to China to push for economic and political reform.

For example, Zhan Tianyou, class of 1881, came to the United States at twelve years old and graduated from Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School. He eventually became an engineering consultant for all of China’s railroads, contributing towards the building of the country’s entire railroad network. Yen Fu, renowned for his widely published Chinese translations of J.S. Mill and Montesquieu, also criticized the oppressive society under the late Qing dynasty. He eventually became an advisor to Yuan Shikai, the first president of the Republic of China.

Although engaging a repressive regime might seem initially contradictory, history shows that Yale is in an especially powerful position to infect China from the inside, leading to the implosion of an oppressive leviathan.

Eric Tung is a senior in Branford College and Publisher of The Yale Free Press.