A deal with the dragon?

An IU delegation led by Interim Provost Michael McRobbie signed a "landmark" agreement with China's prestigious Tsinghua University July 10 to "establish a cooperative research program that includes student exchanges and collaborations targeting improvements in information technology" (IDS, July 13). We applaud IU's efforts to bolster future information technology funding and create a statewide platform of commercial enterprises in the technology industry. Tsinghua is often referred to as the "MIT of China," so partnering Hoosier IT students with the best Chinese IT students seems fantastic, especially considering that IU is home to one of only 20 or so "supercomputers" across the country. \nHowever, something about this deal doesn't sit right with us. The People's Republic of China is a notorious human rights violator -- but nothing in the coverage of the IU delegation's visit mentioned any discussion about the Chinese government's Internet censorship. Or, for that matter, whether IU officials even raised any questions about other aspects of its brutal authoritarian rule.\nKnown as the "Golden Shield" within China, and the "Great Firewall of China" outside the PRC's borders, Chinese Internet censorship -- with the assistance of U.S. search engines Google and Yahoo -- filters word searches and search engines, blocks content by preventing IP addresses from being routed, restricts blogs and bulletin board systems and adds "white space" to replace unacceptable information. We wonder what effects this Internet censorship will have for IU students studying in China? For example, the PRC closed several university bulletin board systems in 2001, and they continue to block Web sites that host user content like Blogspot and Wikipedia, among others. Other Web sites the PRC deems unacceptable are "outlawed" groups like Tibetan independence and Taiwan independence, news sources -- such as Voice of America or BBC News or Yahoo! Hong Kong -- that cover "taboo" subjects like Chinese police brutality or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre or democracy, and sites dedicated to religious matters like Chinese Buddhism. To illustrate our point, compare the results of a Google image search using the keywords "Tiananmen Square" with the results for the same keywords in the Google China search engine at www.google.cn.\nWe realize IU officials have little sway over international foreign policy, but could they at least address these issues? Speaking at the Third Annual Summer Institute on Service-Learning and Community-Based Research on May 10, McRobbie said: "The very mission statement of Indiana University calls for such scholars, as we aim 'to provide high quality education opportunities for men and women from Indiana and throughout the world through a community of scholars actively engaged in teaching, research and public service.' This mission is centered on community and anchored by public service. Indeed, the reciprocal relationship between the campus community and the community at large must be nurtured and strengthened through increased service, engagement and civic responsibility."\nSince when did public service and civic responsibility end at the water's edge?