Yale president urges against 'irrational' fears of China (AP/chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2006-04-20 08:48
Fears about a soaring trade deficit with China should not be used to justify
US tariffs or other "irrational" restrictions on trade with the rapidly growing
country, Yale's president said, just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao was
to visit the Ivy League campus.
Richard Levin, who has fostered a tight-knit relationship between Yale and
China, said Western investment and free trade will encourage China to improve
its human rights record and allow more freedoms.
"China's very rapid emergence as an economic force has engendered a certain
amount of irrational response in the United States," Levin, an economist, said
in an interview. He singled out a bill sponsored by US Sens. Charles
Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican,
that would impose penalty tariffs of 27.5 percent on all Chinese goods coming
into the country unless Beijing goes further in allowing its currency to rise in
value against the dollar.
"It flies in the face of the last 50 years of the US being a major force in
the liberalization of world trade," Levin said. "It would be a horrendous step
backward." Hu is scheduled to speak at Yale on Friday and Levin said he
expects the speech will highlight what China has called its desire for a
"peaceful development."
"China genuinely wants to be integrated into the world community," Levin
said. "They've clearly demonstrated that in their openness to trade and
investment. I think they would much prefer a course that doesn't put them at
odds with the United States."
Yale's relationship with China dates to 1854, when Yung Wing became the first
Chinese citizen to graduate from an American university. Yale now offers 26
study sites in China and collaborates with universities there on a number of
scientific and social research projects.
"They have a serious interest in liberating their curriculum and a serious
interest in changing their style of pedagogy so students feel more free to
express their own views," Levin said. "They want their students to think more
like we do because they think it will be important in driving the future of
their economy."
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