Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who now lives in exile in the United States, tweeted on March 27 about Fu Ying, who served as China’s vice foreign minister from 2010 to 2013 and is now director of the Center for Strategic and Security Studies at Tsinghua University. Cai tweeted that Fu recently posted an article on WeChat commenting on U.S.-China relations. Fu urged the Chinese to think clearly: “If China and the United States break up or go their separate ways, will any country side with China? What do we really want? What should we do?”

Fu Ying stated that there are talks in China that the United States is declining. “Whether the United States is declining or not is the United States’ own concern. China cannot make the decision on whether the US is declining and repeating the belief that the US is in decline will not make it a reality. China has its own problems to focus on and should not expend all its energy on criticizing the United States. It is unnecessary for both nations to belittle each other continuously. Instead, China and the United States need to resolve their respective issues and cooperate with one another to benefit the world. This is the hallmark of great powers.” Fu concluded the article by expressing her hope that China and the United States can reconcile their differences and work together.

Fu’s comment was deleted shortly after it was posted. Fu’s WeChat page said, “This content is not viewable due to a violation.”

‘Source: Liberty Times (Taiwan), March 27, 2023
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/4252829

The University of California, San Diego library told Voice of America that it received notice on March 17 from the administrator of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) that it would be unable to access some databases as of April 1. Other affected libraries include the City University of Hong Kong Library, the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and at least a dozen other research institutions.

Founded in 1999, CNKI is the largest academic database in China. It contains Chinese government reports, academic journals, and papers from 1915 to the present, covering a wide range of fields, including politics, economics, humanities and social sciences, and science and technology. For researchers who do not have physical access to Chinese libraries, the resources provided by the CNKI are particularly important to their research.

Donald Clarke, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said in his tweet, “It is unfortunately China that is by far the most active in decoupling — the most recent example being the closing of foreign access to many important CNKI databases.”

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, told Voice of America (VOA) that “CNKI has not indicated which databases may never be reopened. He added that researchers outside China could still access these resources by visiting research institutions in China.

“That means, however, that they have to be vetted by Chinese academic institutions before they can be accepted as visiting scholars. Under Xi’s rules, all these institutions are under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).” Tsang noted this, suggesting that the CCP hopes to influence how foreign academics portray China by controlling information.

Perry Link, a U.S.-based China scholar, says this reflects the mindset of the Chinese leadership. “Chinese Communist Party spokesmen often accuse the United States of having a ‘Cold War mentality. In today’s information age, there is nothing more indicative of Cold War thinking than preventing the free flow of government reports and academic papers across borders,” Link told VOA.

Source: Voice of America, March 28, 2023
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-academic-database-slashes-foreign-access-20230328/7025597.html