The Coronavirus

Human, Social and Political Implications

James Miller, James Miller

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9789811593628
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book describes and analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on the relationship between the United States and China in its human, social and political dimensions. It does so through the experience of faculty and students at Duke University and Duke Kunshan University, a US-China joint venture university. The book reveals the intimate stories of Chinese people trapped in quarantine, situating these stories in a longer historical perspective of plagues and disease prevention in China. It describes the impact of the virus on the racialized perceptions of Chinese-Americans and Chinese students in America. Finally, it offers a preliminary assessment of the impact of the coronavirus on the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, and on US-China relations. Featuring the work of artists, student journalists, historians, anthropologists and political scientists, this book presents a breadth of insights into the impact of COVID-19.

Part IMemoir and Reflection

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

J. Miller (ed.)The Coronavirushttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9362-8_1

Begin Abstract

Arresting COVID-19: Perspectives from a Sino-US Joint Venture University

Denis Simon¹

(1)

Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Denis Simon

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The tumult produced by the onset and spread of the COVID-19 virus has had a demonstrably chilling effect on the nature of Sino-US relations. American and Chinese leaders have hurled multiple accusations about the origins of the virus across the Pacific; US officials have been particularly dismayed by the lack of transparency by their counterparts in China during the initial advances of the coronavirus in Wuhan and Hubei province. Remarkably, however, in contrast to the initial mishandling of the COVID-19 virus by PRC officials at the national level, the situation within the Sino-US joint venture universities, e.g. Duke Kunshan University, was quite the opposite, with both sides cooperating and moving in tandem to protect the safety and well-being of the students, staff and faculty. This win-win experience highlights the potential mutual benefits of a more collegial, highly collaborative US-China partnership if and when both sides choose to work together with a set of shared goal and objectives.

Keywords

US-China relationsJoint venture universitiesDuke Kunshan UniversityUS-China cooperation

End Abstract

Overview

The onset of the coronavirus epidemic has set in motion a range of forces that promise to alter the dynamics of Sino-US relations for a long-time to come. Both countries have suffered immensely from the rapidity with which the virus overtook their respective societies and the challenges they each faced in bringing the virus under some form of comprehensive control. The fundamental differences between the American and Chinese political systems and cultures as well as their different demographic and ethnic structures produced very different responses. With the international spread of the coronavirus into a global pandemic came a broad range of barbs, accusations, criticisms and finger-pointing between Beijing and Washington DC. The ensuing war of words about how the virus started in Wuhan and how it was handled only has served to heighten existing tensions stemming from their still not-yet-fully unresolved “trade war” and has generated bad feelings across the Pacific, including the use of racially-charged language by the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, who purposely labelled COVID-19 “the Chinese virus.”¹ In many respects, the on-going unabated conflicts between the world’s two most important nations has deprived both countries of many potential medical and related benefits that could have come from better communications and closer cooperation at an earlier point in time.²

Interestingly, while at the macro political level, tensions flared and blatant falsehoods about the source of the virus were thrown across the Pacific,³ at the micro or operational level, the situation was quite the opposite. People-to-people diplomacy continued to work well as many Americans helped to provide needed PPE (personal protective equipment) and other items to China during the first three months of 2020. Then, as the situation in China improved sharply and the virus spread across the US, numerous Chinese organizations and citizens came to the aid of their American friends with shipments of masks and other needed medical supplies, etc. As the Executive Vice Chancellor sitting inside one of the only nine approved joint venture universities (at Duke Kunshan University), I had a front row seat during the initial evolution of the virus in China. Fortunately, once the initial clouds of uncertainty and information blockage faded away about the Wuhan situation and greater transparency occurred, there was a concerted effort to strengthen the bridges of cooperation and communications among all the key players involved. Among the nine JV universities, three involve US institutions: NYU-Shanghai, Wenzhou Kean University, and Duke Kunshan University. While each of the three differ in many key respects, during the course of the first 3 months of the epidemic, the Chinese and American partners on both sides of the Pacific Ocean quickly mobilized capabilities and personnel to address the rising threats to the well-being of their students, faculty and staff. The situations at NYU-Shanghai and Duke Kunshan University were particularly challenging because the former has a student body composed of 50% PRC students and 50% international students, while the latter has about 35% international students and 65% PRC students.

Using the lens of the developments at DKU during the January–April 2020 period, this paper provides analytic insights into the approach and policies adopted by the key players to confront the threats and risks posed by COVID-19. The discussion highlights the win-win outcomes that resulted from the almost seamless working relationship that was forged along the way between DKU and its American counterpart at Duke University as well as with Wuhan University and the city of Kunshan. Most important, learning from the experience of DKU, the paper suggests some lessons for Sino-US relations, especially in terms of the benefits that might accrue to both sides from enhanced coordination, expanded collaboration, and improved communications. Not only are there apparent beneficial outcomes in terms of the bilateral relationship, but it also has become increasingly clear that a better working relationship between Beijing and Washington could be extremely helpful in terms of addressing and arresting the global spread of the virus and other similar types of problems across the globe.

The Onset of COVID-19: Quick Response and Quick Action

As it became clear that the situation in Wuhan and Hubei Province regarding COVID-19 was far more serious than initially had been understood,⁴ the DKU leadership recognized by mid-January 2020 that it needed to take rapid concerted action to protect the campus community.⁵ The arrival of the Chinese New Year holiday coincided with the dispersal of students, staff and faculty; most of the Chinese students and staff returned home to celebrate the holiday with family, while many foreign students and faculty chose to travel in China, other parts of Asia, and other parts of the world. This left a small number of key staff on campus to oversee the general situation as was normally done on extended holidays; some international students who chose not to return home and a modest number of Chinese students all decided to spend the holiday on campus. Several Chinese staff from the Kunshan/Suzhou area remained in the area as did the Chancellor, FENG Youmei, who was from Wuhan but had decided to stay on campus to oversee the campus during the Chinese New Year holiday. Just as the campus began to clear out, however, the news emerged from the Chinese government that all education institutions needed to take special precautions to address the rapid spread of the coronavirus. This led to an immediate critical decision to organize an emergency task force to take the necessary protective actions.

As a Sino-US joint venture, the leadership had faced many challenging situations in the past; the differences in culture and political systems had not always led to a common perspective on appropriate actions or decision criteria regarding academic affairs, student issues, financial matters, etc. In the case of COVID-19, however, something was different. Working with inputs from various sources in the US, including Duke University and following the increasingly serious tone of Chinese government directives, it became clear that evacuating our students was a top priority. A decision was made to provide financial support for all Chinese and international students to return to the safety of their homes. The only exception were the students from Hubei province who simply could not return home due to the growing severity of the virus. In the end, our campus ended up with about 60 of our 725 undergraduate and graduate students remaining on campus.

We also imposed a complete lockdown for the entire campus. This was no small decision. No outside food deliveries, no Starbucks deliveries, no packages, etc. The campus was closed to all visitors, all vendors, and most service personnel. Soon after the bulk of the students departed, including all but two international students from Vietnam, the three major US airlines flying to China decided to shut down service, e.g. United Airlines quickly decided to cut service on February 5th. The shutdown of the US carriers led to a decision to evacuate other international staff as seats became scarce and the virus showed no signs of ebbing; staff and faculty who already had been overseas decided that a return to China was not a good idea. On February 2nd, US President Trump put in place an executive order that the US would halt the travel of China passport holders to the US unless they had a direct family relationship.⁶

What is remarkable about the 5–6 weeks between the onset of the virus in mid-January and the ensuing period is the degree to which all the partners in the joint venture actually worked together in an almost seamless manner to address the needs of the DKU community—not just those located in Kunshan or even in China, but all around the world. With a student body from over 40 different countries and a faculty from 13 different countries, it was not easy to keep track of where everyone was located. The Chinese government at the local, provincial and national level was constantly in touch with DKU staff to collect concrete data about the location of the various members of our community; continuous efforts were made by our key staff on campus and elsewhere to gather and report the necessary data as accurately as possible. In retrospect, one of the key success factors that ultimately helped Jiangsu health authorities moderate and arrest the spread of the virus across entire province was their ability to act on reliable feeds of data not only from DKU and other local universities, but also local communities to make relevant control decisions.⁷ After an admittedly rather bumpy, inauspicious start, the formal emergency task force units set up by the PRC government at multiple levels served as an effective mechanism to ensure that local and eventually national policy decisions were being made based on real-time accurate data.

As an academic institution, after protecting the health and safety of the DKU community, our next priority was to begin consideration of how we would continue forward with our education mission. DKU classes are taught within a modular format; the university operates on a calendar based on four 7-week modules: Fall 1, Fall 2 and Spring 3 and Spring 4. DKU’s academic calendar is more aligned with Duke University in the US, and so unlike the other JV universities, DKU already had begun Spring classes in early January. Faculty and students had finished approximately three weeks of the Spring semester. The need to turn to an online delivery model began to be talked about among China’s education-related government agencies as part of a policy initiative called “Suspending Classes without Stopping Learning.” Fortunately, DKU’s American partner at Duke already had an experienced team in place to work with our campus to facilitate the transition to an online delivery capability. Due to the contributions of Duke colleagues and the close working relationship that was forged very quickly, DKU was able to establish a full online university in just three weeks! I use the term “online university” because we did not simply put courses online, but we also created a series of new virtual student experiences to complement what was going on inside the classroom, e.g. virtual programming for students interested in the arts and the DKU United project to strengthen our students’ sense of community. The availability of new software technologies such as Zoom, WeChat, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, etc. helped to make the overall online delivery and learning experience much richer and more dynamic than the nature of online education in the past.

On March 28th, the PRC government decided to restrict the travel of all non-PRC passport holders back to China.⁸ This was done in response to the recognition that while the number of indigenous examples of COVID-19 had been greatly curtailed across the country, the appearance of new cases largely derived from imported sources—PRC returnees coming back home as the situation around the world was getting worse.⁹ To ensure that a Phase Two of the virus did not occur from a growing number of imported instances, the government instituted international travel controls, severely restricting even the number of Chinese airlines flying in and out of China. As of June 2020, the overall health situation in China has continued to improve, especially in cities such as Shanghai, though the restrictions on foreign travel to China remain very much in place. As part of the Ministry of Education’s phased re-opening plan, some joint venture universities decided to re-start classes for their seniors and graduate students at the end of April after they received special government clearance to re-open their campuses with explicit guarantees regarding safety and health monitoring. The expectation among most of the joint venture schools is that the situation in the Fall will return to normal with face to face delivery being implemented once again.

In contrast to its US and UK counterparts at other joint venture universities, the senior leadership at Duke Kunshan University decided that a return of students was not a good idea because of continued risk concerns and related logistical challenges. Having leveraged a great deal of learning from the online delivery experience in the Spring 3 module, the online delivery of the DKU curriculum proceeded ahead for the Spring 4 module. On-going discussions between Duke and DKU are continuing to occur about how to deal with t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Part I. Memoir and Reflection
• Part II. Context and Analysis