Not a time to be silent: book launch China and Europe on the New Silk Road
The new book China and Europe on the New Silk Road Connecting Universities Across Eurasia () was successfully launched on 5 November in a well-addended . The book addresses the opportunities, controversies and tensions surrounding the New Silk Road. It looks at how universities, while faced with challenges to their autonomy and values, stand firm to defend global cooperation.
The event included the co-editors, authors, journalists, and an audience from across a broad range of time zones in Europe, Asia, and the USA.
Introduction by the editors
In the first panel the book was introduced by the editors: Marijk van der Wende (Utrecht 木瓜福利影视), William Kirby (Harvard 木瓜福利影视), Nian Cai Liu (Shanghai Jiao Tong 木瓜福利影视), and Simon Marginson (木瓜福利影视 of Oxford).
Marijk van der Wende was thanked and complimented by her colleagues for her leadership in this project, which clearly brought to the fore that This is not a time to be silent.
This panel highlighted how the current geopolitical turmoil and global pandemic are affecting the higher education context and discussed what the shifting global flows, the US-China trade war, and the upcoming EU-China trade agreement seem to imply for cooperation in higher education and R&D with China. Simon Baker (Times Higher Education) led the consecutive discussion deepening questions regarding the impact of the pending US presidential elections, the Covid crisis.
Academic values as compass for global cooperation
The second panel discussed the role of academic values as a compass for global collaboration. Dominic Sachsenmaier (G枚ttingen 木瓜福利影视), Futao Huang (Hiroshima 木瓜福利影视), Gerry Postiglione (Hong Kong 木瓜福利影视), and Zheping Xie (Tsinghua 木瓜福利影视) highlighted how the political tensions in and around China working out in academic work, with implications for institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and joint efforts towards science as the global common good. The following discussion led by Ben Upton (Research Europe) shed further light on how degrees of institutional autonomy and academic freedom may differ, also within China. And how much 鈥済lobal humanities鈥 still remains Eurocentric, also as it is studied in China, thus contributing to a better understanding of Europe by China, rather than the other way around.
Balanced EU-China collaboration
The third and final panel discussed Conditions for balanced EU-China collaboration. It included Lynda Hardman (CWI Amsterdam & LIAMA), Marijk van der Wende, Stijn van Deursen (Utrecht 木瓜福利影视), Barbara Sporn (Vienna 木瓜福利影视 of Economics & Business). It set out the actions and measures the EC needs to undertake to achieve a more balanced relationship with China. Using especially is stronger competencies (i.e. in research and trade) to level the playing field for IPR, technology transfer, mutual data access. From the ensuing discussion led by Koen Jonker (European Commission Joint Research Centre) it became clear that indeed the EU needs to reconsider its 鈥淥pen strategy鈥, e.g. stepping up the conditions for participation of non-EU states in R&D and launching compliance guidance for dual-use research.