Cristy Li

Established in 1986 The John Hopkins Univ-Nanjing Univ Center for Chinese and American Studies was the creation of then John Hopkins Univ President Steven Muller and then Nanjing Univ President Kuang Yaming. Both men recognized the importance of mutual understanding to improve relations between China and the West and agreed the best way to achieve such understanding was to bring people together for an extended period of intense exposure to each others history, culture, contemporary thought and society.

China Regime balks at the novel experiment.

With a growing number of U.S. colleges building campuses in China Bloomberg looked at one long standing program and its limitations on academic freedom outside the classroom walls.

American student Brendon Stewart was forbidden from distributing a journal of academic writing outside of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center last year–later he discovered why.

Intended to showcase the best work by Chinese, American students and faculty to a far flung audience, ‘Stewart’s Journal’ broke the Hopkins Nanjing Center’s rules that confine academic freedom to the classroom. Administrators prevented ‘Stewart’s Journal’ from circulating outside campus and a student was pressured to withdraw an article about China’s protest movements–about 75 copies set in a box in Stewart’s dorm room for about a year.

The muzzling of ‘Stewart’s Journal’ exposes the compromises to academic freedom that some American universities make in China–While professors and students openly discuss sensitive issues–they can not do so in the surrounding community. Even on campus protections only cover classroom discussions, not activities typical of U.S. campuses, such as showing documentary films in a student lounge.

On the 06 January, 2009 regarding the cracking down on major websites including search engines by the China Regime, I wrote here that free speech is essential in the pursuit of learning, every idea or thought is not an avenue of incitement, censorship only results in the pursuit of finding cracks within the Great Firewall of China.

More here from China Digital Times

Related: Studying Abroad a Challenge Worth Embracing –Epoch Times

Screenshot 5 Year Old Longlong –Qilu TV

YueYue  DejaVu tragedy all over again–Five Year old boy named Longlong, passed away from his injuries in China Linya Shandong Province after passerby’s ignored his Mother’s pleas for help to rush him to the hospital.

It was a day like any other, Longlong’s Mother took him out to a restaurant, while they were waiting to be served, Longlong went out strolling alone, his Mother then heard a big thud.

Longlong was struck by a beam right in his head and blood was oozing profusely out of his mouth and ears–his Mother kneeled  down while holding her Son’s head, holding Longlong in her arms, she pleaded for drivers to stop (including an Urban Administration Vehicle) to take her Son to the hospital since the ambulance hadn’t arrived but not a single person stopped and no one offered any help for critically injured Longlong–by the time an Ambulance had arrived, the five year old had passed away.

The beam was constructed by a shop next to the restaurant which has since been smashed by Longlong’s family–the man who made the beam was detained by local Police.

Longlong’s story was one of the top stories last week on Sina Weibo—Online China Regime Censors have appeared to have stepped in as Longlong’s story has been scrubbed from major content and video portals.

More here including video from Qilu.com –Shanghaiist