China

India-China Fulbright Scholar Wraps Up Visit to the Schar School

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 14:21:48 +0000

India-China Fulbright Scholar Wraps Up Visit to the Schar School Andrew J Schappert Wed, 02/14/2024 - 09:21

Visiting Fulbright professor Raman: ‘You can never say you have achieved everything but I’m going back with good memories.’

��AV is known for helping students and scholars achieve Fulbright fellowships at prestigious postings around the world. The university is also known for being a destination for those chosen to participate in international academic exchange, which is how Gundumella Venkat Raman came to teach—and learn—at Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government for six months beginning in August 2023.

“In India we have the United States-India Education Foundation which, along with the U.S. State Department, works for the exchange of Fulbright fellows every year,” said Raman, who is on the faculty of humanities and social sciences at the Indian Institute of Management Indore in central India. “I came here as part of the exchange of mid-career professionals. The idea is to encourage mid-career professionals who have a certain kind of leadership and credentials to conduct research and teach.”

Raman, a sinologist with a focus on China’s interface with global governance, taught a course called The China Challenge for master’s and PhD students; he also studied “the current American political discourse related to China across various constituencies,” with a focus on climate change and technology, he said.

Raman chose the Schar School specifically, he said, because of its proximity to decision makers in nearby Washington, D.C.

“The area has lots of think tanks which make it easier for me to reach out and have interactions with them,” he said.

Once his teaching was done, he became familiar at the Wilson Center, the American Enterprise Institute, the Peterson Institute of International Economics, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the RAND Corporation.

Raman’s visit, which included excursions six U.S. states and stops at San Jose State University in California, Wake Forest University in North Carolina, and the University of Texas-El Paso, provided opportunities for interaction with colleagues and students and deliver talks about India’s China policies.

“The idea of a Fulbright scholarship is not merely academic,” he said. “The idea is to encourage scholars and scholarship exchanges, and also perhaps develop in visiting scholars a certain sense of cultural understanding of the America society.”

To that end, Fulbright organized a four-day enrichment seminar for many current Fulbright fellows in Cleveland, Ohio, on the topic of public health in America.

“We were introduced to some of the public health concerns and the various debates and discussions, critical issues that envelop this whole issue of public health in the United States,” Raman said.

“Given all this,” he concluded, “it’s been a frenetic pace of activity for the last six months. You can never say you have achieved everything but I’m going back with good memories. And it has been very enriching. I am more well informed about some of the things that are happening over here [in the U.S.].”

As he prepared to depart, he learned that Washington, D.C.'s new cricket team, the Washington Freedom, is interested in building a temporary cricket stadium on Mason's West Campus.

“Oh my gosh,” he said. “I think I came a year early.”

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U.S. Government adds Shenyang Institute of Automation to Entity List

Rena Malai — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 19:19:31 +0000

U.S. Government adds Shenyang Institute of Automation to Entity List Rena Malai Wed, 06/29/2022 - 15:19

The U.S. government added the China Academy of Science – Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), to its "Entity List," effective June 30, 2022. This action prohibits exports of any items, technology, or software that is subject to the U.S. export administration regulations. This is a very broad prohibition. No license exceptions are applicable to potential exports to the Shenyang Institute, and license applications will be reviewed with a presumption of denial.

The action was taken because SIA both acquired and attempted to acquire U.S. origin items in support of military applications, contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.

According to SIA's website:

SIA is a comprehensive research institute. Its 11 research departments are devoted, respectively, to robotics, oceanic engineering, space automation and technology, optoelectronic technology, intelligent detection and equipment, information services and intelligent control, equipment manufacturing technology, industrial control networks and systems, autonomous underwater vehicles, and digital factories.
SIA is the supporting institute for over 10 national and provincial key laboratories and engineering centers, including the National Engineering Research Center on Robotics, the State Key Laboratory of Robotics, and the CAS Key Laboratory for Networked Control Systems.
Since 1985, SIA has established exchange and collaboration programs with universities, research institutes and high-tech companies in the United States, Russia, Japan and various European countries. Nearly 100 SIA researchers travel abroad annually to participate in various exchange activities. The institute also actively recruits overseas talent to conduct research at SIA under the CAS Thousand Talents Program, the CAS Hundred Talents Program, and the CAS Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists Program, among others.

Please contact export@gmu.edu if your current research collaborations or proposed research collaborations involve SIA or the laboratories and engineering centers it supports, or if you are planning to invite a visitor to Mason from SIA, so we can help you navigate the new federal restrictions.

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Podcast - EP 37: On Ukraine, Russia, China, and a very messy world

Damian Cristodero — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 14:11:20 +0000

Podcast - EP 37: On Ukraine, Russia, China, and a very messy world Damian Cristodero Tue, 03/15/2022 - 10:11

In This Story

Gregory Washington

Larry Pfeiffer, director of ��AV’s Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, explains to Mason President Gregory Washington about Vladimir Putin’s real agenda in Ukraine. He explains why the war in Ukraine matters to the United States even though the U.S.’s long-term geopolitical, economic and technological challenge is from China. Pfeiffer also asks Americans to guard against autocracy at home because, as he said, it doesn’t take much for a country’s values to be subverted and freedoms suppressed.