Talking Points, November 19 - December 3, 2008

Talking Points
November 19 - December 3, 2008

Major American retailers report declining sales and greatly diminished profits. At Home Depot, for example, profits were down 31% in the just completed third quarter. At Target, they were down 24%. Chinese exports hit record levels last month, but the slowing of the American economy (and a similar slowing of the Japanese economy) has had dramatic repercussions in China. Thousands of factories have closed and millions more people are now out of work.

China’s government was due to lift the minimum wage, but that has been postponed out of fear that such a rise would further squeeze factory operators and put more workers out on the street. Like central banks in the U.S. and Europe, Chinese authorities have already cut interest rates, hoping to stimulate lending and business investment.

Some economists see China’s economic slowdown as an opportunity to make much-needed adjustments. They say this is an opportunity to foster greater domestic consumption and to make China’s economy less dependent on export-led manufacturing. China needs, they argue, to increase employment in the service sector.

These are compelling points and Chinese leaders accept the need for economic restructuring. But leaders were already worried about the challenges posed by the need to rebuild areas devastated by the May earthquake. Now they also fear that rising unemployment will generate protests. Even before the quake and expanding layoffs, polls showed that nine out of ten Chinese felt the gap between the nation’s rich and poor was a big problem. Most of those polled (78%) also felt that corruption among officials was a big problem. (Click here for more poll data.)

Large protests have become commonplace in China. Many are driven by anger over perceived official insensitivity to workers left without pay or to communities harmed by polluting factories. On Monday, a different spark triggered a large and violent protest in Longan, a city in northwest China. The incident began with non-violent petitioning by three dozen people who feared that relocating government offices would negatively affect the value of their land and businesses. Before long an estimated 2,000 people were using bricks and pipes to attack city offices and the police sent to quell the unrest.

Chinese leaders hope increased public spending will keep the economy expanding and keep social discontent localized and manageable. Among the planned projects: a railway linking Lanzhou in the northwest with Chongqing in the southwest. The $8.6 billion project is largely funded by loans from China Construction Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Many American investors are indirectly part of the effort as well. On Monday Bank of America announced it was investing another $7 billion in China Construction Bank, giving it a 19% share of China’s second largest bank. Goldman Sachs purchased a share of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for $2.6 billion in 2006.

The intricate and elaborate intertwining of the Chinese and American economies and the challenge and opportunity posed by the financial crisis will be examined on December 2 at USC by economist Calla Wiemer. Her initial assessment of the Chinese government’s economic stimulus plan appeared last week in the Asian Wall Street Journal. We hope you will join us for her presentation. You can learn more about our economic ties via the “Tensions over Trade” segment of our documentary. You can see it at http://china.usc.edu or at our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/uschinainstitute.

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The listing below and at the calendar section of our website includes many interesting talks, including at look at UCLA at how archaeology is reshaping our understanding of early China, a talk at Berkeley about the Great Wall, and a new exhibition at the Bowers Museum on the textiles and jewelry of the Miao.

We remind readers that the USC U.S.-China Institute is inviting applications for 2009-2010 postdoctoral fellowships as well as faculty and graduate student research grants. You can see these calls for proposals in the announcements section of our website. Fellowships from other institutions are listed in the resources section of our website.

Please pass this issue of Talking Points along to friends and colleagues. They can subscribe at: http://china.usc.edu/subscribe.aspx. We love getting questions and comments from you. Please write us at uschina@usc.edu.

Best wishes,
The USC U.S.-China Institute
http://china.usc.edu

USC: 

12/02/2008: China's Place in the Global Financial Crisis
USC University Club, Banquet Room, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Cost: Free
Time: 4:00PM - 6:00PM
USCI presents a talk with Calla Wiemer on China and the financial crisis.

California:

11/19/2008: Patterns of Interaction in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Painting
University of California, Berkeley
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor, Berkeley, CA 94720
Cost: Free
Time: 4:00PM - 6:00PM
UC Berkeley presents James Cahill's discussion on observations about cross-cultural borrowings of styles and motifs between the three great East Asian cultures.  

11/21/2008: Recent Developments in the Study of Buddhist Art
UCLA Faculty Center Hacienda Room
Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
This symposium will feature a panel of experts discussing recent developments in Buddhist art. 
 
11/22/2008: China's New Past: Archaeology, Early History, New Visions
UCLA Young Research Library
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
A seminar by David Schaberg, in conjunction with the exhibition East Asian Archaeology & Classic Architecture. 
 
11/23/2008: Inside/Outside: The Great Wall of China
University of California, Berkeley
2626 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94720
Cost: Prices vary. See website for details.
TimeL 3:00PM - 4:30PM
David Spindler and Peter Hessler will explore the fascinating history—cultural, political, and military—of the Great Wall. 

North America:

11/20/2008: Press Conference : US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report
Room 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building
1ST Street & Constitution Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20510
Time: 10 am - 11 am
The formal release of 2008 annual report to Congress.  
 
11/20/2008: Compassionate Activity: Tibetan Schools in China
University of Kansas
Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union
Time: 7:00PM - 9:00PM
Hungkar Dorje will describe his operation of three schools in Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
 
11/21/2008 - 11/23/2008: Biographical Databases for the Study of China’s History
Harvard University
CGIS South Building, Room S250
Phone: 617-495-4046
The workshop will bring together scholars from Taiwan, China, Japan, Europe, and the US who have been working on biographical databases for China’s history.  

12/02/2008: The Historical and Comparative Study of Religion: The Chinese Context
Princeton University
Address: 202 Jones Hall , Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Cost: Free
Time: 4:30PM - 6:30PM
F. W. Mote Memorial Lecture Series Professor Yu will explore the debate among both religion scholars and those of other disciplines on whether the concept of religion as such is wholly Western and thus not universally applicable in scholarship.

Exhibitions: 

09/10/2008 - 01/04/2009: Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection
2626 Bancroft Way, UC Berkeley campus
Cost $5- 12     General Admission
141 works by 96 artists, drawn from one of the world’s most important and comprehensive collections of contemporary Chinese art. 

09/17/2008 - 01/11/2009: Confucius: Shaping Values Through Art
Pacific Asia Museum
Address: 46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena , CA 91101
Cost: $7 for adults, $5 for students/seniors
Phone: (626) 449-2742 
Confucius: Shaping Values Through Art explores how Confucian values have permeated East Asian culture. It utilizes the Museum’s own collection as a case study.  
 
09/05/2008 - 01/11/2009: Art and China's Revolution
Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City
General admission is $10, seniors $7, students $5 and free for members and persons under 16
Asia Society Presents First Comprehensive Exhibition Devoted to Revolutionary Chinese Art from the 1950s Through 1970s. 

10/18/2008 - 01/11/2009: China Design Now
Cincinnati Art Museum
953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
This exhibition captures an extraordinary moment as China opens up to global influences and responds to the hopes and dreams of its new urban middle class.

11/03/2008 - 11/03/2009: Ancient Arts of China: A 5000 Year Legacy
Bowers Museum
2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana, California 92706
Bowers Museum presents a collection that portrays the evolution of Chinese technology, art and culture. 

11/15/2008 - 11/15/2009: Masters of Adornment: The Miao People of China
Bowers Museum
2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana, California 92706
The Bowers Museum presents a collection of exquisite textiles and silver jewelry that highlights the beauty and wealth of the Miao peoples of southwest China.

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