‘Confident’ China should relax grip on cultural, information exchange: academic

Too many Chinese scholars fail to properly engage with their overseas peers, leading to worsening decoupling, professor warns

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A professor at Renmin University has warned that China’s information decoupling from the rest of the world could be devastating in the age of AI. Shutterstock

Published: 7:00pm, 20 Oct 2024

China should cut red tape around international cultural exchanges and relax its internet controls to prevent the worsening of its information “decoupling” from the world, a leading academic said.

Wang Wen, dean and professor of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University, noted that China had become a target for criticism by Western countries as Beijing pursued a bigger say in the global narrative.

“China has solved the problems of hunger and poverty. Now it’s time to address the problem of being scolded,” he wrote in last week’s issue of Think Tank: Theory & Practice, the bimonthly journal published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing University.

According to Wang, he has witnessed many awkward moments when Chinese scholars at overseas symposiums were asked “sensitive questions” on topics ranging from China’s leadership moves to human rights concerns in Xinjiang or Tibet.

Wang said he had attended events in more than 20 countries since China removed its pandemic curbs in 2022, and seen many scholars fail to properly address queries from overseas audiences.

Other subjects that Chinese academics find difficult to handle at these events include China’s battle against Covid-19, social governance, and cross-strait tensions with Taiwan, according to the article.