The role of international capital, knowledge, and networks is having an enormous influence on the development of China’s economy, the mobility of its returned scholars, the academic life of university staff, and the perspectives of its youth. This panel explores how internationalization is affecting selected forms of autonomy as China enters the 21st century. The first paper notes how economic planning for developing special zone economies and contain international influence has been subverted. In particular, it argues that the unintended effect has been the internationalization of neighboring cities The second paper focuses on returned overseas scholars as a form of transnational capital. It compares local and returned Ph.D.s and the degree to which each group has been able to maintain transnational links and mobility. The third paper explores how the internationalization of the economies of Shanghai and Hong Kong is affecting academic life. It argues that the academic profession in both cities is becoming increasingly similar and interdependent, not only as a function of their growing competition, but also global trends in the academe. The final paper examines the seeming paradox in the study of Chinese youth of a simultaneous rise in knowledge about and influences from the world outside China alongside a rising tide of nationalism. The panel aims to expand and enrich the discussion on internationalization and autonomy by providing case studies and data from interviews, surveys, and a variety of documentary sources.

David Zweig, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

In 1984, China opened fourteen coastal cities to international trade and investment and made twelve of them Economic and Technical Development Zones (EDTZs). In 1992, another fifty-two High Tech Development Zones were established. The goal was to attract foreign investment and turn these zones into centers for the creation of high quality exports. The zones were also intended to become "transnational" spaces, or "channels of global transaction" where foreigners and Chinese could meet under the watchful eye of the Chinese bureaucracy.

After fifteen years, what has been the contribution of these zones to China’s overall export-led growth economy and has the state has been able to use those zones to control foreign exchanges? Relying on interviews in China in 1992, 1993, and 1997, as well as economic data from 1989–1996 on these development zones collected in Nantong, China, we can assess the level of internationalization of these zones.

The data reveal that in the initial stages, these zones played a minimal role in the development of their nearby cities. In large part, cities sought the right to establish these zones in order to gain access to preferential policies, which lowered the transaction costs of both domestic and foreign trade, and therefore turned the zones into magnets which attracted domestic investors, as much as foreign investors. However, the data show that, by the mid-1990s, the ETDZs in most of the original fourteen Open Coastal Cities had become quite internationalized and were playing a major role in expanding the level of internationalization for their neighboring city.

Changgui Chen, Zhongshan University, Minqiang Zhang, Zhongshan University

For many years the number of Chinese overseas scholars who returned was quite small. Particularly after 1987, when more self-funded scholars went overseas, the return rate shrank. Tiananmen turned that flow into a trickle, and reports discussed the problems confronted by returned scholars. After Deng Xiaoping’s "southern trip" in 1992, the government instituted a series of more liberal policies on returnees. A significant increase in the numbers of returnees followed.

Based on a survey of 475 Chinese scholars who returned from overseas, we can address the following questions. Why have people returned? How difficult has the process of re-assimilation been? In what way does this group differ from those who returned in the 1980s? Are they able to keep strong transnational links and do they serve as a bridge between China and the outside world? We also will compare this group to a "control group" of people who did not go overseas, in order to assess whether the possession of what we call "transnational capital" increases the value of mobility.

The data set is also useful since it includes a high number of people with overseas as well as local Ph.D.s. This allows us to see if there are significant differences between the way local and overseas Ph.D.s behave and are treated upon returning to China. Also, given the different lengths of time overseas of these two groups—the local Ph.D.s or people without a Ph.D. tended to go on shorter fellowships—we can assess the role of long-term overseas training on returnees’ performances in China.

Gerard Postiglione, University of Hong Kong

Growing economic and scientific competition between Shanghai and Hong Kong is the background for examining how internationalization of their economies is affecting academic staff at their top institutions. This paper explores the links between these two cities and their positioning within the global academy as a result of increased internationalization. This is accomplished by examining the institutional context of the academic profession in these two cities, and survey data of attributes and attitudes of academic staff in three top-tier universities in each city. The comparison places special emphasis on views about their students, research activity, institutional governance, academic freedom, the relationship between higher education and society, and international academic activity.

The paper argues that the academic profession in both cities is becoming increasingly similar and dependent, not only as a function of their growing competition, expanding national dialogue, increased academic exchange, but also global trends in the academe. The data reveal that the integration of Hong Kong’s academics into the global academy has been strengthened to a degree by their increased engagement with academics in other parts of China, although the role of the Hong Kong academy as a bridge between China and the West has been diminished by China’s increased openness and direct contacts. There is a large shift toward appointment of academics from mainland China who earned their doctorates overseas; however, such a shift has not fundamentally altered the degree of academic integration of Hong Kong faculty into the global academy, and could, in fact, increase the degree of integration of China’s academic community. Nevertheless, academic freedom is still a concern for both cities, especially as exemplified in the response patterns of academic staff in Shanghai. While the problem is less severe in Hong Kong, growing managerialism and shrinking budgets due to the Asian economic crisis have the potential to threaten academic freedom.

Stanley Rosen, University of Southern California