Jottings from the Granite Studio

It’s a disturbing trend that shouldn’t come as any shock to anyone in the circle of foreign-based China researchers: step over the line and risk losing your access.

Paul Mooney writes in The National (h/t CDT) about the problems certain academics face when they run afoul of the anti-intellectual hacks generally in charge of such things here in the PRC.  The article cites a number of prominent scholars, including Perry Link and a personal favorite of mine, James Millward, whose Beyond the Pass is one of the great accounts of the Qing conquest of Χinjiang.  It was not Professor Millward’s historical work which got him in trouble, but rather his contributions to the book Χinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland which landed him, four years later and counting, on the outside looking in:

“It’s far easier to put the kibosh on someone than to lift it,” said James Millward, a professor of history at Georgetown University and a contributor to the book.

All of the scholars, with the exception of one, have been refused visas to China, with only a few exceptions for special circumstances.

The message - which worried China scholars around the world - was clear. There are topics China will not tolerate discussion on and the government is prepared to do whatever it takes to keep a lid on them.

Foreign scholars are finding the China field an increasingly dangerous territory to navigate, and some readily admit to avoiding certain topics and to tweaking their research. And the situation is getting worse as China grows more economically and politically powerful.

One of the authors of the banned book - titled Χinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland - who declined to use his name, said Beijing is stepping up efforts to control how China is perceived internationally. “We’re in a period where China’s influence is expanding and they’re seeking ways to control the message outside of China just as they do inside China.”

In research, access can be everything.  Are researchers pulling their punches or switching topics to preserve their ability to do research inside the PRC?

My own research focuses on anti-foreign violence, nationalism, and colonialism in the late-19th century.  I’ve never had trouble accessing materials.  I doubt anything I write professionally will have me facing the possibility of being 86′d from the country, but what if I were working on 19th-century colonialism in Tibet or on rising nationalism in the late-1980s?

In many ways, China is less free today academically than it was 20 years ago, and China’s increasing economic and political resources are providing the government with the means–and the desire–to control information beyond the borders as well.

Professor Edward Friedman (another Granite Studio fave) of the University of Wisconsin is quoted as saying:

“There’s a sort of Damocles sword hanging above your head and you are aware of it all the time,” Mr Friedman said. “The way it works is if the sword falls, the question is ‘Why was your neck stretched out?’ rather than why did the sword fall.” He said some members of the China-watching community actually blame colleagues who have been barred.

It’s a situation that is both disturbing and worth following.  With so much control over research agendas inside the PRC, any attempts to manage or manipulate the research of the foreign-based academic community is grave indeed.