Tuesday May 27, 2014
The lectures we have had at SIIS have been really interesting and more interactive than the past two universities. The Chinese students sit in on the lectures too, although they are not as vocal as us (most likely because it is hard to debate politics in your second language).
Today's lecture was especially stimulating because the professor conducted it more like an actual class. Instead of lecturing and having a Q&A at the end, he asked us tough questions and forced both the Chinese and American students to not only answer the question, but to think through the logic of our answers and provide logical reasoning. He also gave us all push back on the answers we gave, essentially playing devil's advocate. This approach was just like our classes back home and I think it is the best way to learn. If you aren't put on the spot and forced to think through these issues it's easy to just give any answer and not really understand the depth of these issues.
The first question he posed, which we spent a significant amount of time on was "is China becoming more assertive?" The Americans generally answered that yes China is, while the Chinese all agreed they weren't. However I think this divide is largely due to how each side views the word assertive. I think the Chinese students view it with a negative connotation, therefore it would not apply to them. I also think they do no see how their military modernization, regardless of their intentions, appears inherently threatening to the US and the region.
There were so many great comments, I wish I could regurgitate them here, but there is not enough room so I wii have to end here!
Cheryl
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