China Forum at Warwick

**Warwick’s China Forum, held on Campus on Saturday 2 February, was hailed as a success. Top speakers travelled to the University to provide talks on China’s relations with Japan, its past, and its evolution and innovation.**

The third annual Forum had around 60 to 100 attendees, despite having to compete with four other forums taking place on Campus on the same day, including Warwick International Aid Forum and One World Conference.

As well as a host of top speakers, the event promoted the Forum’s journal, consisting of contributions from Chinese students all over the world.

President of China in Focus, the society which organised the Forum, commented: “the purpose of the event is to allow students to better understand China, it’s about mutual understanding – through this we will better understand ourselves. We want to spread student voices, they are the future of the world”.

The first speaker was Rod Wye, an expert in China’s international relations and East Asian security.

Mr Wye discussed the relations between China and Japan, suggesting it was likely that war could erupt between the two countries. “The code word is assertiveness in China’s foreign policy”, said Mr Wye.

He added that while Japanese business is still ubiquitous in China, the superpower feels it can “take the hit” on the economic side in pursuing its goals as the economic relationship is, and will remain, strong.

Mr Wye commented that in recent weeks, there have been signs that both sides want to “step back a little” from positions they’ve got themselves into.

Phillip Dodd discussed China’s cultural innovation and offered his predictions for the future. “China, for a set of very complex reasons is being made to move from ‘made to China’ to ‘created in China’”, stated Mr Dodd.

A visiting fellow at Kings’ College London, Mr Dodd thinks that the UK universities treat foreign students “very badly”, although he argued that Warwick may well be the exception that proves the rule. “[UK] Universities take a lot of money and don’t cater to their needs.”

In his talk Mr Dodd touched on the fact that there are 120,000 Chinese students in Britain today.

“Western institutions are going to have to change”, argued Mr Dodd. “If they’re going to enter the China market, they’re going to have to understand the customers they’re serving. It’s simply a question of time.

“UK universities aren’t globally connected when they teach western aesthetics, and don’t teach Indian and Chinese aesthetics. Britain has more now to learn from China than china has to learn from Britain.”

Speaking to the _Boar_, Mr Dodd said: “What I like about Warwick is I often speak to group that are mono-cultural – Warwick is a mixed audience.”

Asked about his comments on universities’ treatment of international students, Mr Dodd elaborated: “Part of [the issue] is getting rid of the term ‘international’”.

He continued: “universities should be frank about what you’re going to get. You have to educate domestic students about foreign peers – not the other way around. Too many universities’ staff know nothing of their students’ culture. We have to help foreign students pave the way from study to work.”

Yuting JI, is studying for a Masters in Industrial Relations and Managing home resources. She told the _Boar_ why she was attending the Forum: “I want to know why foreigners are interested in China and what they think about the Chinese. [The speakers] have given us a lot of quite useful information, especially on the relationship between China and Japan.”

Mathilde Tybring-Gjedde, Speakers exec also spoke to the _Boar_: “I’m very happy to have had a variety of students coming to the event – not just Chinese, not just English students, some international speakers too. For instance Philip Dodd’s talk on the creative economy was very different to the traditional approach to China”.

Mathilde also praised the event’s sponsors, which helped to provide a free buffet lunch for all attendees.

The next speaker, Guy de Jonquieres, a senior fellow at the European Centre for International Political Economy, discussed the China power shift and its international implications.

While it is undeniable that economically China has grown at an exponential rate in recent years due to its expansion abroad and profitable investments in Africa and South America, Jonquieres argued that “economic size doesn’t equal global power.”

Jonquieres argued that rather than seeing China as a competitor, the international community should see it as ally, as China has greatly increased the supply of commodities on the global market due to it’s cheap production costs which is a benefit to consumers.

However Jonquieres was also critical, calling China’s foreign policy ‘disjointed’ and highlighting the distrust between China and the US despite the fact that “China knows it must rely on the U.S for international security.”

He briefly described the state of the Chinese market, Jonquieres concluded his fascinating talk on China’s economy by making a striking last remark: “until great political and social reform can be completed, China will remain the servant of the international financial system.”

Rana Mitter, a professor of the history and politics of modern China at Oxford, gave a talk on ‘how China’s wartime past is shaping nationalism today and tomorrow’.

He mainly focused on a detailed explanation of the events of WW2 and how this affected China, in particular the War of resistance with Japan between 1937-1945. Mitter simplified the root cause of the war to one sentence: “Japanese imperialism versus Chinese nationalism.”

Arthar Hussain is the Director of the Asia Research Centre at the London School of Economics and has served as a consultant to various international organisations such as the World Bank and governments.

His speech was titled ‘China’s demographic evolution’ and focused on the changes in China’s population and how this is affecting the economy.

Only in the last 10 years China’s population has risen by 74 million, more than the UK’s population. However by 2030 India’s population is likely to surpass China’s.

Meng Qiu, a Supply Chain Management post-graduate student commented on the day: “I’m originally from China, so I came here to hear a different perspective on these issues and perhaps a new way of thinking as the education system in China is very specific. I found the speeches given by Philip Todd and Rana Mitter very interesting and informative.”