China's changes discussed

Three professors who study China had a clear message at a colloquium on Friday -- China is changing, but it's not becoming a copy of Europe or the United States.\nThe colloquium, hosted by the East Asian Studies Center, was titled "Making Sense of Today's Changing China."\nThe scholars discussed China's continuing response to the pressures of modernization and globalization.\nEast Asian studies assistant professor Ethan Michelson, who spent two years studying Chinese legal institutions, talked about the symbols of China's legal process.\nFollowing the 1949 revolution, which brought the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong to power, "the ministry of justice was abolished, the legal profession was abolished, and this made it very easy to punish political enemies arbitrarily," Michelson said.\nOnly after Mao's death and the ascension of Deng Xiaoping to power in the late 1970s did lawyers and courts make a comeback. \nDeng, who had been imprisoned under Mao, championed reforms to the legal system, Michelson said.\nMany people argue that China is adopting common international standards of law only as "window dressing" in order to win admission to the World Trade Organization and the right to host the 2008 Olympics, Michelson said.\nMichelson said the story is more complex.\n"The legal system is looking more like those you would find elsewhere in the world," Michelson said.\nHe said certain cosmetic changes in China's courts suggest that the country is becoming more like the United States and Europe. For example, judges in Chinese courts now wear black robes and use gavels, just like their counterparts in the West. \nThis impression, Michelson argues, is mistaken. Even though courts may look more like each other, he said they do not operate the same.\nMichelson used a Chinese television show called "Pai an jing qi 30 fen" (translated as "30 Minutes of Amazing Cases") to highlight the differences between perceptions of the law.\nThe show, Michelson said, is "identical" to "The People's Court." Both shows feature small claims cases, like disputes between neighbors or complaints from customers when a store delivers a shoddy product.\nThe role of the judge is different in China. Judges like Judge Wapner don't normally use case law to reach their decisions, Michelson said.\n"This is what you do see in this show in China," he said. "The judge actually cites the bodies of law, such and such article. It's a source of legal education."\nWhile Chinese lawyers, like their Western counterparts, use the scales of justice to symbolize the law, more common is the 2,000-year-old huabiao, which represents virtuous government and imperial authority. Its deeper meaning is that, in China, "law and politics are fused together," he said, as opposed to the U.S.\nMichelson said this was indicative of a deeper trend of confusing surface changes with reality.\n"That's a mistake a lot of people make -- 'Oh, they look the same, so they must be the same.'\n"No, they're not," Michelson said.\nRick Harbaugh, a visiting assistant professor of economics, said that China's economy is doing well.\nHarbaugh joked that the most frequent question asked in lectures about China's economy is "Are we heading for a crisis?"\nIn reality, Harbaugh said, "China has had a remarkable run for 25 years."\nEducation professor Heidi Ross has studied Chinese schools for two decades.\nShe said that education in China, once divided along gender lines, is becoming more equitable. \nBut challenges remain.\n"Half a million Chinese girls lack opportunities to attend primary school," Ross said. \nThat figure is a drop from the 1990 figure of more than 1.7 million.\nFor some girls, gender inequities are compounded by the division between China's wealthy cities and poor countryside.\nInterestingly, Ross said, traditional attitudes that girls weren't as important as boys are no longer severe barriers to girls' education.\nPoverty is a bigger obstacle, she said.\n"Recent research indicates that over 40 percent of children in poor rural areas in China are stunted in their physical growth," she said.\n-- Contact staff writer Paul Musgrave at rpmusgra@indiana.edu.