The Honors College and the Center for International Trade and Security at UGA, and the ChinaResearch Center, co-sponsored a panel discussion on non-proliferation issues related to China on 27 January 2004 on the UGA campus. The speakers were Dr. Clif Pannell, Dr. John Garver, and Mr. Hou Hongyu. Dr. Gary Bertsch, the Director of the Center for International Trade and Security, moderated the session. Approximately 100 students and faculty attended the event.
Dr. Clif Pannell, Associate Dean of the Franklin College and Professor of Geography, set the stage for the discussion. China has seen rapid change in its economy, and now is experiencing increasing technological sophistication. This has led to shifts in its manufacturing base to high value-added goods and increasingly high-tech production. It has also led to an ability to carry out manned space exploration and other impressive technological challenges. At the same time, China’s political system has seen comparatively little change.
Mr. Hou Hongyu, a visiting scholar from the Chinese People’s Association of Peace and Disarmament in Beijing, presented his view of the situation from China’s perspective. He argued that China’s top priority is economic development, and that peace is essential to this goal. He pointed out that China has an export control system in place, and that much of the criticism of China’s sales of magnets and chemical equipment ignore the fact that these are not on the list of agreed to controls. China’s policy is not to help any country develop nuclear weapons, and in particular, China wants North Korea to be non-nuclear.
Dr. John Garver, professor of international affairs at the Sam Nunn School at Georgia Tech, discussed China’s changing position on non-proliferation. Under Mao, China saw non-proliferation efforts as U.S.-U.S.S.R. collusion to keep the rest weak. At this time China helped Pakistan research, develop and produce nuclear weapons and sold virtually without restriction nuclear technology to Iran, Algeria and other countries with nuclear weapons ambitions. This attitude changed slowly but steadily under Deng Xiaoping, although there were strong commercial incentives to continue sales. By 2003, China had become a genuine supporter of the global non-proliferation regime and was actively cooperating with the U.S. on Korea and the Indian sub-continent. China has a lot of leverage with some countries, and with North Korea in particular because of the economic aid it provides. The question will be to what extent will China be willing to use that leverage. .
PRC Visiting Scholar at Georgia Tech.
Mr. Hu Wen-tao, Associate Dean of the School of Legal Studies and Lecturer in the Department of International Affairs at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, is spending the 2004 calendar year at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Hu’s visit to the United States, his first, is supported by a highly competitive and prestigious fellowship from the Ministry of Education. Mr. Hu is currently a Doctoral student in Sino-foreign relations at Jinan University in Guangzhou (Canton), in Guangdong province, and researching U.S. cultural diplomacy toward China. During 1998 and 1999. Mr. Hu served as vice head of Huangben township government of Qingyuan city in Guangdong province where he had responsibility for elementary education and participated in organizing local elections. Huangben region is one of the poorest townships of China. From 1992 to 1993 Mr. Hu was instructor of politics in Guzhen township of Zhongshan city, also in Guangdong province. Guzhen is one of China’s richest towns in China. Mr. Hu received awards for his outstanding work in both Huangben and Guzhen. Professor Hu can be contacted at Georgia Tech. via his email at: [email protected] or via Dr. John Garver at 404-894-6846.
