Hu Jintao does Yale

President Hu Jintao of the People's Republic of China came to Yale today, and I was fortunate enough to receive one of the coveted tickets to attend his address at Sprague Hall!

The University treats heads-of-state at the same security level as the American president, which meant that the blocks immediately surrounding Sprague were barricaded up and staffed with armed, forbidding security men (at a concentration of about one per three feet) along the perimeter. The Falung Gong protesters--who'd been making a ruckus since 6am--were chanting in Chinese, waving signs in Chinese and English, and generally condemning everything the Chinese government does wrong. This includes harvesting organs from prisoners, banning the practice of Falun Gong in China, suppressing free speech, censorship of the press, and more. They lined the streets around SSS and the eastern side of the Green, and the New York Times reported about 1,000 protesters total. In addition, there were a significant number of Chinese and Chinese-Americans on the streets to show their support of Hu Jintao and his government. It was, in a strange way, refreshing to see both the supporters and the opposition--it seems that so often, protests get to be one-sided condemnations that do little to move a more moderate agenda forward.

My invitation said I should get there "up to an hour early" and that all guests had to be seated by 10:30am. The President's massive, 55-car motorcade was due to arrive between 11 and 11:30am, which left a significant amount of time to fill between being seated and the meat of the program. Thankfully, Yale's administrators outdid themselves--they kept the approximately 600 students, faculty, press, and officials seated in Sprague entertained and happy through several performances by Yale School of Music students. (As way of explanation: Sprague Hall is a part of the Music school.) This included a flutist, a violinist, and an a cappella solo of a eardrum-piercing Chinese folk song, but the most memorable by far was a guitar duet that truly took my breath away. (One of these days I'm going to check out classical guitar albums and buy a few, because the music is so soothing and melodic and intoxicating--without being pretentious or stuffy, like a lot of classical music sounds to me.) Anyway, I have a new-found respect for the Yale School of Music. Did you know that fullyone-third of Pulitzer prize winners in musical categories graduated from or taught at YSM? Crazy!

Throughout these performances, President Hu's entourage was slipping in to the Hall through a door to the lefthand side of the stage. It was quite literally an unending stream of dark-suited Chinese men, with a tiny sprinkling of Chinese women dressed in blindingly bright hues of oriental red and shocking pink. (Well, not all of them. But those two certainly caught my eye.) Every now and again the audience would fall silent, as if we collectively anticipated the arrival of the President in the next ten seconds..... until we would realize (again, collectively) that the stream of dark-suited Chinese men would continue for another long length of time and we should stop holding our breaths. This cycle was repeated four or five times until suddenly, and without any warning, he had arrived, walked out on stage and stood shaking Richard Levin's hand, gazing out into the audience with his characteristic, rather-chagrined-looking smile coupled with his comicly robotic wave--both of which completely belie the immense power and prestige embodied in his position as President of the most populous country on the planet. After a heavy dose of applause, we all settled into our seats, switching on the radio transmitters that would be delivering a simultaneous English translation of the President's speech, delivered in Mandarin. A heavily-accented female voice crackled through my earpiece, and the address had begun: "Dear Mr. Richard Levin, President of Yale University, dear students and faculty members, ladies and gentlemen..."

The audience had been told that the President's address would be on the topic of China's "peaceful development." Whether I agreed with the adjective "peaceful" or not, I understood the central focus of his speech to be about the future of Chinese development, and how development policies will shape not only China's domestic affairs but its role in the international arena. Hu outlined his government's new concept of development, which hopes to bring together a "scientific outlook" and a "people-oriented approach." He emphasized the continued need for economic growth while implicitly recognizing the increasing inequality that casts shadows over that progress. By applying this new concept, Hu explained, the government hopes to achieve a per-capita GDP to $3,000US by the year 2020. If that seems modest, let's remember that "any figure divided by 1.3 billion will necessarily become a smaller one" and it still means doubling the current GDP, which is now about $1,700US per capita. Development in China had always been and would continue to be "for the people, and by the people."

Hand-in-hand with this policy of scientific development, Hu also said, was his vision for China to embrace a greater role in international relations for the promotion of peace--but not just peace for its own sake. He gave justification for China's investment in world peace by explaining that a lasting peace would allow the domestic agenda of development to be pursued without hindrance. China would continue to push an "independent foreign policy" to achieve these two goals, world peace and domestic development. In this respect, the relationship between the U.S. and China is key. Though both countries have vast territories and many ethnicities, and both Americans and Chinese are hard-working and talented peoples, there are also significant differences in history that open doors of opportunity: "The Pacific Ocean is vast, but not so vast as to preclude mutual learning and help." The President even went so far as to say that the closer China-U.S. relations are, the better off the world will be.

Despite these positive overtones, however, the President also emphasized that for the Chinese government and the country's citizens, ethnic harmony and national unity would remain the foundations for their socialist democracy. He noted that since the "opening up" since 1979, China has--despite what its critics may say--embarked on economic reforms as well as political and social reforms on a vast scale that have had a great impact on improving the welfare of the Chinese people. While "building a democracy, rule of law, fraternity and integrity" were important pillars of China's development policy, the importance of ethnic harmony and national unity remain paramount. China will learn from the example of foreign countries and their histories, but will not simply copy their institutions and styles of democracy. With a history that is over 5,000 years long, China will chart its own course on its path to development and democracy.

To sum it all up, the message seemed to be:
- China will continue to pursue a people-oriented development of its economy
- China recognizes the importance of China-U.S. relations and seeks a greater role in the promotion of international peace in the future. But its foreign policy will remain "independent"
- China will not be told what to do, and will become a democracy when the time is ripe--and that time will be decided by the Chinese and their leaders

Certainly, it's a mixed message. But what more can one expect from a politician? A Chinese president no doubt has many constituents within China and its government to please. My personal take on it is simply hopeful--in that I hope his future policies reflect his positive comments, and that his Sino-centric comments will prove nothing more than an act to satisfy conservatives. But past experience seems to indicate otherwise. Hu has systematically cracked-down on the small amount of freedom gained by the Chinese media since taking office; his stand towards Taiwan remains unwavering; and elections in Hong Kong have been delayed time and time again as a result of Beijing's intervention. (The woman sitting next to me during the address was a Hong Kong reporter following Hu on his trip to to the U.S., and when I asked her what the people of Hong Kong thought of Hu, she gave me a rather sarcastic look and snorted, "We like him a lot." That being said, Wikipedia's article on Hu seems to say that Hong Kongers are generally supportive of him. Hmm.) On the other hand, he has emphasized a more egalitarian approach to development, sacking many corrupt officials, and dismantling the egregious practice of holding annual party meetings at the Beidahe beach resort.

In the end, it makes sense that Hu's words should embody certain contradictions. Anyone who has ever been to China knows that it is a country chock full of contradictions--contradictions that make it frustrating and fascinating, infuriating and intoxicating. And while I think he probably has better things to do than read this humble blog, I'm going to thank him anyway, because even if I disagree with some of the things he said, it was pretty damn cool that he came up to Yale.

So here I go, in my now-weak grasp of Mandarin, which has steadily deteriorated since I left Taiwan last summer:

Hu xiansheng, wo hen ganxie ni lai Yalu Daxue gei women xuesheng he jiaoshimen jihui ting ni de yanjiang. Wo zhen xiwang, tongguo nianqingren de jiaoyu he jiaoliu, jianglai Meiguo he Zhongguo de guanxi hui yuelai yuemiqie. Duo xie! -He Huimei