tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/anti-chinese-32983/articlesAnti-chinese – The Conversation2019-01-16T19:10:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1098832019-01-16T19:10:37Z2019-01-16T19:10:37ZMorrison’s Vanuatu trip shows the government’s continued focus on militarising the Pacific<p>The foreign policy community met with relief the announcement Morrison’s first overseas trip for 2019 would be to Vanuatu and Fiji. The trip is a long overdue symbol of a priority outlined in the 2017 <a href="https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/">Foreign Policy White Paper</a>: “stepping up our engagement in the Pacific”.</p>
<p>There had been much criticism of the PM’s <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/no-snubbing-the-pacific-foreign-minister">failure to attend</a> last year’s Pacific Islands Forum given the white paper’s <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/geo/pacific/engagement/Pages/stepping-up-australias-pacific-engagement.aspx">stated aims</a> to</p>
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<p>engage with the Pacific with greater intensity and ambition, deliver more integrated and innovative policy and make further, substantial long-term investments in the region’s development.</p>
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<p>Although Vanuatu’s prime minister, Charlot Salwai, <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/joint-statement-prime-minister-vanuatu">visited Australia last year</a>, Morrison’s trip to Port Vila on Wednesday <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-14/scott-morrison-historic-vanuatu-fiji-state-visit/10712212">is the first</a> by an Australian PM since Bob Hawke in 1990. </p>
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<p>The trip had a strong defence focus, with <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/politics/security-and-policing-aid-marks-start-of-scott-morrisons-new-pacific-chapter-20190115-h1a3il">Morrison saying</a> Australia’s contribution to Vanuatu’s police and security will ensure “the stability of our region”. He is also reportedly negotiating a bilateral security agreement. This represents a deeper militarisation of Australia’s Pacific foreign policy. </p>
<p>Morrison’s aims to formalise security relations are an attempt to gain influence in the face of China’s rising competition. <a href="https://theconversation.com/response-to-rumours-of-a-chinese-military-base-in-vanuatu-speaks-volumes-about-australian-foreign-policy-94813">Australia’s undiplomatic and somewhat hysterical response</a> to rumours of a Chinese military base being built in Vanuatu in 2018 highlights Canberra’s sensitivity to “foreign” intervention in the South Pacific.</p>
<p>Although Vanuatu was quick to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-10/china-military-base-in-vanuatu-report-of-concern-turnbull-says/9635742">deny the rumours</a>, debate in Australia raged over the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/china-eyes-vanuatu-military-base-in-plan-with-global-ramifications-20180409-p4z8j9.html">geopolitical implications</a>, with some commentators saying a strike could be launched from the base to Australia.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/response-to-rumours-of-a-chinese-military-base-in-vanuatu-speaks-volumes-about-australian-foreign-policy-94813">Response to rumours of a Chinese military base in Vanuatu speaks volumes about Australian foreign policy</a>
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<p>The government’s recent pattern of providing support for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-17/us-to-partner-with-australia-and-png-on-manus-island-naval-base/10507658">PNG’s Manus Island naval base</a>, <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/australia-outbids-china-fund-fiji-military-base">Fiji’s Black Rock Base</a>, or <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/WhitePaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf">new Patrol Boats</a> to 12 Pacific Island nations, is part of a tectonic shift that has occurred in foreign policy toward the Pacific. </p>
<p>Australia’s focus is security, concentrating on <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-pacific-island-nations-rising-sea-levels-are-a-bigger-security-concern-than-rising-chinese-influence-102403">external threats and the possibility of internal instability</a>. The Pacific’s concern, however, is <a href="http://pacificidf.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PACIFIC-ISLAND-DEVELOPMENT-FORUM-SUVA-DECLARATION-ON-CLIMATE-CHANGE.v2.pdf">sustainable development and climate change</a>, which Australia seems to ignore.</p>
<p>The question is whether Canberra will simply continue framing the Pacific through the lens of Australian policy priorities or focus on what the Pacific wants.</p>
<h2>Australia’s relationship with Vanuatu</h2>
<p>Australia already has significant defence relations with the other Pacific Island military nations – PNG and Fiji. Canberra has a longstanding <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/annualreports/15-16/Features/20-DefenceCooperation.asp">defence cooperation relationship with PNG</a> and this trip will likely lead to greater defence cooperation with Fiji – especially as <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/australia-outbids-china-fund-fiji-military-base">Australia beat China</a> in the bid to build the Black Rock Base. </p>
<p>And in 2017, under then Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Australia negotiated a bilateral security treaty with the Solomon Islands <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/geo/solomon-islands/Pages/Bilateral-security-treaty.aspx">security cooperation agreement</a>. This agreement allows Australian police personnel to deploy rapidly to Solomon Islands (with the consent of both countries) if there is a threat, which includes natural disasters.</p>
<p>With regards to Vanuatu, Australia is already its <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/geo/vanuatu/development-assistance/Pages/development-assistance-in-vanuatu.aspx">main development assistance partner</a>. And Australia’s trading and investment relationship with Vanuatu is as significant as is possible with a small island nation of 285,000 people. And out of the Pacific nations and Timor Leste, Vanuatu has the <a href="http://www.devpolicy.org/vanuatu-workers-20190108/">larger number of workers</a> in Australia and New Zealand as part of the <a href="https://www.jobs.gov.au/seasonal-worker-programme">Seasonal Worker Program</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/vanuatu-disaster-exposes-limits-of-australian-internationalism-38918">Vanuatu disaster exposes limits of Australian internationalism</a>
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<p>In the 1980s Australia gave Vanuatu a patrol boat to police its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and will give a modern advanced vessel as part of the <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/annualreports/17-18/Features/Maritime.asp">Pacific Maritime Security Program</a>. This program, detailed in the <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/WhitePaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf">2016 Defence White Paper</a>, is a A$2 billion commitment to the region over 30 years, and seeks to support regional countries in defending their maritime boundaries from transnational crime and illegal fishing.</p>
<p>The Australian Federal Police also has a longstanding training relationship with the Vanuatu Police through DFAT’s Policing and Justice Support Program. In 2018 it was announced that Australia would train 300 <a href="https://vanuatuindependent.com/2018/11/20/enhanced-security-cooperation-aus-vanuatu/">new recruits</a>.</p>
<p>Despite all of this, the Morrison Government is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-14/scott-morrison-historic-vanuatu-fiji-state-visit/10712212">reportedly</a> placing increased security cooperation with Vanuatu high on the agenda. So, why now? Perhaps because Canberra’s Pacific “step up” has not all been plain sailing and relations with Vanuatu have been strained recently.</p>
<h2>Australia at odds with the Pacific</h2>
<p>In the past, Australia’s relations with the Pacific had been characterised by aid and development rather than security. Canberra remains the region’s <a href="https://pacificaidmap.lowyinstitute.org/">number one aid donor</a>. However, under successive Liberal governments, the aid budget has declined. </p>
<p>This has continued under the Morrison government and there is <a href="http://www.devpolicy.org/will-scomos-pacific-step-up-be-an-aid-budget-step-back-20181109/">concern</a> militarisation will draw funds away from development projects that more closely meet the interests of Pacific Island nations.</p>
<p>The other key plank in the government’s Pacific “step up” was the announcement of a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-08/scott-morrison-announces-pacific-infrastructure-bank/10475452">infrastructure development bank</a>. This multi-billion dollar initiative is short on detail but plans to provide loans for “high priority” infrastructure projects including telecommunications, energy, transport and water. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-theres-one-thing-pacific-nations-dont-need-its-yet-another-infrastructure-investment-bank-107198">If there's one thing Pacific nations don't need, it's yet another infrastructure investment bank</a>
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<p>The loans will be provided at concessional rates and the bank is aimed at countering Chinese influence. Australia has criticised China’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-chinas-debt-book-diplomacy-in-the-pacific-shouldnt-ring-alarm-bells-just-yet-96709">debt book diplomacy</a>, so increasing the debt pool of Pacific countries seems at odds with these concerns.</p>
<p>Morrison’s Pacific pivot is in full swing. So far, the Infrastructure Bank <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/stepping-pacific-infrastructure">raises more questions than it answers</a>. The security focus of Morrison’s trip is likely to lead to more speculation about what Australia wants to give. If we want to build sustainable relationships, we should be <a href="https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/55672/1/Walking_the_Talk.pdf">listening closely</a> to what Vanuatu wants to get from any security agreement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael O'Keefe has in the past worked for AusAID, the Pacific Islands Development forum and The Fijian Ministry of Foreign Affairs</span></em></p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s historic visit to Vanuatu is centred around security. This fits a pattern shifting the focus from development to militarisation in Australia’s Pacific foreign policy.Michael O'Keefe, Head of Department, Politics and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/973612018-05-29T22:58:41Z2018-05-29T22:58:41ZCanada’s disturbing lack of vision on dealing with a rising China<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220838/original/file-20180529-80661-1lhznkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ambassador of China to Canada Lu Shaye is photographed at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ottawa on May 24, 2018, following the announcement that Canada had turned down China's takeover bid for Aecon.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Canadian government’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-23/trudeau-blocks-chinese-takeover-of-aecon-on-security-grounds">rejection</a> of the proposed takeover by a Chinese company of the Toronto-based construction giant Aecon on the grounds of “national security” reflects Canada’s vulnerability in an increasingly complicated era that’s been dubbed the <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2015/01/are-we-living-in-a-chinese-century/"><em>China Century</em></a>.</p>
<p>Canada’s construction industry went to great lengths to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/construction-group-warns-of-price-cutting-if-aecon-sold-to-china/article37850620/">lobby Ottawa</a>, even <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/cccc-acquisition-of-aecon-group">commissioning opinion polls</a>, in the hopes of influencing the fate of the proposed $1.5 billion bid. For good reason, segments of the Canadian private sector are terrified that their Chinese competitors will outperform, undercut and win favour with Canadian political leaders.</p>
<p>Corporate activists, backed by a stream of opinion from ex-national security officials, political opportunists and academic ideologues, have weighed in. To their credit, the campaign worked on Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, who rejected the deal in a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2018/05/minister-bains-statement-on-cccis-proposed-acquisition-of-aecon.html">noticeably vague statement</a>.</p>
<p>The stakes are high for many of Canada’s special interest groups, and Ottawa’s decision was therefore a welcome one to those stakeholders.</p>
<p>This of course is unsurprising, and in some ways Canadians are lucky to have officials publicly going to bat to defend their interests. Yet this discussion must evolve. Those who rejected the Aecon bid on grounds of national security, environmental threats and labour rights amid a modern-day <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare">Red Scare</a> need to be more honest about what’s happening.</p>
<p>The truth is Canadian businesses simply can’t compete against Beijing’s giant state-backed corporations.</p>
<h2>China excels at infrastructure</h2>
<p>Canada’s construction industry is particularly vulnerable given China’s long history of expertise in engineering and infrastructure development. In fact, China is so good at building infrastructure that it’s become a principle export strategy within the Chinese government’s trillion-dollar <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-belt-and-road-china-infrastructure-project-2018-1">One Belt One Road</a> policy.</p>
<p>The failed Aecon deal represents a difficult and structural challenge for Canada and its Western allies. How do liberal trading nations work with a politically socialist state that has ironically become a <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/china-is-reshaping-the-liberal-order-and-its-for-the-better/">champion of the liberal trading order</a>?</p>
<p>This is a question Ottawa has yet to answer.</p>
<p>As Canadians debate on how to engage a rising China, Beijing has been aggressively positioning itself as a viable and pragmatic alternative to the West’s development model. The past five years has seen China take leading roles in multilateral institutions such as the <a href="https://www.aiib.org/en/index.html">Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank</a> and the <a href="https://www.ndb.int/">New Development Bank</a> while investing heavily in the developing world.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220843/original/file-20180529-80640-e7zht1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220843/original/file-20180529-80640-e7zht1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220843/original/file-20180529-80640-e7zht1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220843/original/file-20180529-80640-e7zht1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220843/original/file-20180529-80640-e7zht1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220843/original/file-20180529-80640-e7zht1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220843/original/file-20180529-80640-e7zht1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen here in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in August 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)</span></span>
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<p>And despite Western fears around President Xi Jinping’s so-called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/opinion/global/xi-jinpings-chinese-dream.html">China Dream</a> philosophy and a recent <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43361276">constitutional amendment</a> that allows him to hold on to power indefinitely, Beijing still needs friends. And it’s actively pursuing investment partners, including those in Canada.</p>
<p>But the most recent attempt via the Aecon takeover goes well beyond any one company. </p>
<p>Beijing is scouring the planet for resources and opportunities to meet its domestic consumption needs. Chinese state-owned enterprises will continue to seek out large-scale takeovers, business partnerships and resource accumulation investments. </p>
<p>How then does Canada operate in an increasingly relevant liberal trading system that is taking on some distinct Chinese characteristics?</p>
<h2>Anti-China rhetoric doesn’t accomplish much</h2>
<p>To start, the anti-China investment narrative found in some public policy circles does little to address this question. While takeover bids will continue, rejecting them on unclear grounds of threats and national security can only go so far. Pundits and think tanks need to drop the anti-China rhetoric and give serious thought to how the global trading order has evolved.</p>
<p>Second, Ottawa must develop a clear non-partisan policy, one that can cut across party lines, on how to work with a rising China that still aligns with Canada’s national interests. This will be difficult, something no federal government has yet to achieve. Still, developing a national task force on building and advocating a clear long-term China policy has never been more important.</p>
<p>Finally, Canadians need to have an honest conversation on what type of trading nation we want to build. Canada has significant investments in China, including a recent <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cppib-china-longfor-property-1.4508416">$800 million venture</a> by our state-owned Canada Pension Plan in Chengdu. Beijing has options to retaliate should they believe Canada is behaving unfairly. </p>
<p>Although rejecting the Aecon bid may have been in our national interest, Canadians must find a way to cut through the anti-China cacophony. As talks on possible <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/articles/obstacles-ahead-canada-china-trade">Canada-China free trade deal</a> move forward, there must be a sophisticated understanding of how global trade networks are evolving.</p>
<p>Indulging in Red Scare rhetoric and continuing to ignore the new global trade realities is a bigger threat to Canada’s economic security than China itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert J. Hanlon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the wake of the Canadian government’s rejection of a Chinese takeover bid for construction company Aecon, Canada must drop the ‘Red Scare’ rhetoric and figure out how to engage with a rising China.Robert J. Hanlon, Assistant Professor of International Relations and Asian Politics, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/812202017-07-20T01:47:26Z2017-07-20T01:47:26ZWhy the US doesn’t understand Chinese thought – and must<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178694/original/file-20170718-2912-196tw9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plato, Confucius and Aristotle. Ancient Greek philosophy is widely taught in American universities, but classes in Chinese philosophy are few and far between.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/china-stature-figure-sculpture-1703288/">Public domain</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The need for the U.S. to understand China is obvious. The Chinese economy is on track to <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/02/09/study-china-will-overtake-the-u-s-as-worlds-largest-economy-before-2030/">become the largest in the world by 2030</a>, Chinese leadership may be the key to <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/does-china-have-a-secret-solution-for-north-korea/">resolving the nuclear crisis with North Korea</a> and China has military and economic ambitions in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38729207">the South China Sea</a> and <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/china-ready-war-india-open-fire-border-638300">India</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/world/asia/trump-taiwan-and-china-the-controversy-explained.html">Trump administration has shown</a> (<a href="http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2017/07/10/499312/the-white.htm">repeatedly</a>) that it’s not even clear on the difference between the People’s Republic of China (the authoritarian state that occupies the mainland and that recently <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-winnie-the-pooh-xi-jinping-president-sina-wibo-gifs-wechat-state-censor-communist-congress-a7845671.html">blacklisted Winnie the Pooh</a>) and the Republic of China (the <a href="http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/how-contagious-taiwans-democracy">democratic state</a> that occupies the island of Taiwan and that numerous U.S. presidents have defended against <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2014/12/aircraft-carriers-in-the-taiwan-strait/">mainland Chinese shows of force</a>).</p>
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<span class="caption">Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 conference in Hamburg, Germany.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/China-White-House-Gaffe/6c5dca6f7952497c8bd6ee1e9cbc57d1/1/0">Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP, File</a></span>
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<p>Part of what U.S. diplomats and informed citizens need to know is the <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/feature/5-colossal-events-changed-china-forever-13046">basic historical background</a> to contemporary China. However, as a <a href="http://www.bryanvannorden.com/">scholar of Chinese philosophy</a>, I believe it’s at least as important to understand how China thinks.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, very few universities in the United States teach traditional Chinese philosophies such as Confucianism or Daoism. Why not? And why should we care?</p>
<h2>Why study Chinese philosophy?</h2>
<p>There are at least three reasons that the lack of Chinese philosophy instruction in U.S. universities is problematic.</p>
<p>First, <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-steps-up-as-us-steps-back-from-global-leadership-70962">China is an increasingly important world power</a>, both economically and geopolitically – and traditional philosophy is of continuing relevance in China. President Xi Jinping <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/xismoments/2017-05/12/content_29324341.htm">has repeatedly praised Confucius</a>, the influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.</p>
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<p>Like the Buddha, Jesus and Socrates, Confucius has been variously interpreted – sometimes idolized and other times demonized. At the beginning of the 20th century, some Chinese modernizers claimed that <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520068377">Confucianism was authoritarian and dogmatic</a> at its core. Other thinkers have suggested that <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9838.html">Confucianism provides a meritocratic alternative</a> that is arguably superior to Western liberal democracy.</p>
<p>Second, Chinese philosophy has much to offer simply as philosophy. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia expressed a common misconception about Chinese philosophy, dismissing it as the “<a href="http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/confucius-on-gay-marriage/">mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie</a>.” In reality, Chinese philosophy is rich in persuasive argumentation and careful analysis. </p>
<p>For example, Georgetown professor <a href="http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/emc89/">Erin Cline</a> has shown how Confucian ethics can provide a deeper understanding of <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/families-of-virtue/9780231171557">ethical issues regarding the family</a> and can even inform policy recommendations. Confucians emphasize both the role of parents in nurturing children and the responsibility of government to create environments in which families can flourish. Cline demonstrates that practical initiatives like the <a href="http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/about">Nurse-Family Partnership</a> help to realize both goals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178698/original/file-20170718-10320-1ib05v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178698/original/file-20170718-10320-1ib05v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178698/original/file-20170718-10320-1ib05v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178698/original/file-20170718-10320-1ib05v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178698/original/file-20170718-10320-1ib05v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178698/original/file-20170718-10320-1ib05v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178698/original/file-20170718-10320-1ib05v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese philosophers like Confucius have much to teach us. So why are they being ignored in many American universities?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bibbit/2700170983/">Bridget Coila</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The third reason that it’s important to add Chinese philosophy to the curriculum has to do with the need for cultural diversity. As two philosophers <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0306-schwitzgebel-cherry-philosophy-so-white-20160306-story.html">pointed out</a> in a Los Angeles Times op-ed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…academic philosophy in the United States has a diversity problem. …Among U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving philosophy Ph.D.’s in this country, 86 percent are non-Hispanic white. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both my own experience and that of many of my colleagues suggest that part of the reason for this is that students of color are confronted with a curriculum that appears to be a temple to the achievements of white men. We need to expand the philosophical curriculum to include not only Chinese philosophy, but also the other <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/taking-back-philosophy/9780231184373">less commonly taught philosophies</a>, including Africana, feminist, indigenous American, Islamic, Latin American and South Asian philosophies.</p>
<h2>Just how bad is the situation?</h2>
<p>Most philosophy departments <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/opinion/if-philosophy-wont-diversify-lets-call-it-what-it-really-is.html">seem unwilling to admit</a> there’s philosophy outside of the European tradition that’s worth studying.</p>
<p>Among the <a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp">top 50 philosophy departments in the U.S.</a> that grant a Ph.D., only six (by my reckoning) have a member of their regular faculty who teaches Chinese philosophy: <a href="https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Philosophy/Faculty-Bios/Hagop-Sarkissian">CUNY Graduate Center</a>, <a href="http://philosophy.duke.edu/people/david-b-wong">Duke University</a>, <a href="https://philosophy.berkeley.edu/people/detail/336">University of California at Berkeley</a>, <a href="http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/%7Eeschwitz/">University of California at Riverside</a>, <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/alexusmcleod013/home">University of Connecticut</a> and <a href="http://warpweftandway.com/sonya-hired-michigan/">University of Michigan</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178697/original/file-20170718-5965-aoczbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178697/original/file-20170718-5965-aoczbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178697/original/file-20170718-5965-aoczbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178697/original/file-20170718-5965-aoczbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178697/original/file-20170718-5965-aoczbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178697/original/file-20170718-5965-aoczbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178697/original/file-20170718-5965-aoczbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parmenides (center) and Heraclitus (right) are relatively obscure Greek philosophers, but their disagreement on the changing nature of the universe is still widely taught in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/14770157081">Raphael via Steven Zuker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, every one of the top 50 schools has at least one regular member of the philosophy department who can lecture competently on <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/parmenides/#WayCon">Parmenides</a>, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. His only surviving work is a poem filled with cryptic utterances like: “for not to be said and not to be thought / is it that it is not.” Is this really more profound than the sum total of Chinese philosophy?</p>
<p>I was recently part of <a href="http://www.apaonline.org/?page=E2016_Invited">a panel at a major academic conference</a> that was specifically advertised as an opportunity for nonspecialists to learn about Chinese philosophy. While other sessions at the conference had packed rooms, we lectured to an audience of fewer than a dozen people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115673/original/image-20160319-4446-1et00s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Empty room at the start of an American Philosophical Association panel on Chinese philosophy on Jan. 6, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bryan W. Van Norden</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, at Chinese universities, both Western and traditional Chinese philosophy are routinely taught. China is also heavily investing in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-education-strategy-fits-into-its-quest-for-global-influence-50864">higher education</a>, while the Trump administration <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-trumps-harsh-education-cuts-undermine-his-economic-growth-goals-78297">hopes to slash funding for education</a>. I expect that China understands the U.S. better than we understand it.</p>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>At the beginning of this article, I cited some reasons that China is increasingly important on the world stage. Here’s one more: China is currently starting upon one of the most ambitious building projects in all of human history, the <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/reviving-the-ancient-silk-road-whats-the-big-deal-about-chinas-one-belt-one-road">One Belt, One Road</a> initiative. A modern version of the ancient <a href="http://en.unesco.org/silkroad/about-silk-road">Silk Road</a>, it will expand and solidify Chinese economic and political power across all of Eurasia. </p>
<p>Can the U.S. really afford not to understand this country? As <a href="http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&id=1117#s10019891">Confucius said,</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Do not worry that others fail to understand you; worry that you fail to understand others.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>This draws on material previously published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinese-philosophy-is-missing-from-u-s-philosophy-departments-should-we-care-56550">this article</a> from May 18, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryan W. Van Norden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s more important than ever that the U.S. understand China. So why don’t our universities teach Chinese thought?Bryan W. Van Norden, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor, Yale-NUS CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/734262017-02-27T00:43:36Z2017-02-27T00:43:36ZAmerica’s mass deportation system is rooted in racism<p>A rowdy segment of the American electorate is hell-bent on banning a specific group of immigrants from entering the United States. Thousands upon thousands of other people – citizens and immigrants, alike – oppose them, choosing to go to court rather than fulfill the electorate’s narrow vision of what America should look like: white, middle-class and Christian. </p>
<p>Soon a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings could grant unrestrained power to Congress and the president over immigration control. More than 50 million people could be deported. Countless others might be barred from entering. Most of them would be poor, nonwhite and non-Christian.</p>
<p>This may sound like wild speculation about what is to come in President Donald Trump’s America. It is not. It is the history of U.S. immigration control, which is the focus of my work in the books <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Migra-History-Border-American-Crossroads/dp/0520266412">“Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol</a>” and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/City-Inmates-Conquest-Rebellion-1771-1965/dp/1469631180">“City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles</a>.” </p>
<p>Historically speaking, immigration control is one of the least constitutional and most racist realms of governance in U.S. law and life.</p>
<h2>Made in the American West</h2>
<p>The modern system of U.S. immigration control began in the 19th-century American West. Between the 1840s and 1880s, the United States government warred with indigenous peoples and Mexico to <a href="http://invasionofamerica.ehistory.org/">lay claim</a> to the region. Droves of Anglo-American families soon followed, believing it was their <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b52137/">Manifest Destiny</a> to dominate land, law and life in the region. </p>
<p>But indigenous peoples never disappeared (see Standing Rock) and nonwhite migrants arrived (see the state of California). Chinese immigrants, in particular, arrived in large numbers during the 19th century. A travel writer who was popular at the time, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/visittoindiachin00taylrich#page/354/mode/2up/search/debased">Bayard Taylor</a>, expressed the sentiment settlers felt toward Chinese immigrants in one of his books:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Chinese are, morally, the most debased people on the face of the earth… their touch is pollution… They should not be allowed to settle on our soil.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>When <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520029057">discriminatory laws</a> and <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520256941">settler violence</a> failed to expel them from the region, the settlers pounded Congress to develop a system of federal immigration control.</p>
<p>In response to their demands, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=47">1882 Chinese Exclusion Act</a>, which prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country for 10 years. The law focused on Chinese laborers, the single largest sector of the Chinese immigrant community. In <a href="http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_exclusion_doc_3.html">1884</a>, Congress required all Chinese laborers admitted before the Exclusion Act was passed to secure a certificate of reentry if they wanted to leave and return. But, in <a href="http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_exclusion_doc_4.html">1888</a>, Congress banned even those with certificates from reentering.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158359/original/image-20170224-22981-34v6zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration, ‘How John may dodge the exclusion act’ shows Uncle Sam’s boot kicking a Chinese immigrant off a dock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.25972">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then, when the Chinese Exclusion Act was set to expire in 1892, Congress passed the <a href="http://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1892GearyAct.pdf">Geary Act</a>, which again banned all Chinese laborers and required all Chinese immigrants to verify their lawful presence by <a href="https://calisphere.org/item/4d59c4cfdf78dc205399f14a1f0e53a1/">registering</a> with the federal government. The federal authorities were empowered by the law to find, imprison and deport all Chinese immigrants who failed to register by May 1893. </p>
<p>Together, these laws banned a nationally targeted population from entering the United States and invented the first system of mass deportation. Nothing quite like this had ever before been tried in the United States.</p>
<p>Chinese immigrants rebelled against the new laws. In 1888, a laborer named Chae Chan Ping was denied the right of return despite having a reentry certificate and was subsequently confined on a steamship. The Chinese immigrant community hired lawyers to fight his case. The lawyers argued the case up to the U.S. Supreme Court but lost when the court ruled that “the power of exclusion of foreigners [is an] incident of sovereignty belonging to the government of the United States” and “cannot be granted away or restrained on behalf of anyone.” </p>
<p>Simply put, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/130/581/case.html">Chae Chan Ping v. U.S.</a> established that Congress and the president hold “absolute” and “unqualified” authority over immigrant entry and exclusion at U.S. borders.</p>
<h2>Chinese exclusion cases</h2>
<p>Despite this loss, Chinese immigrants refused to comply with the 1892 Geary Act, submitting themselves for arrest and risking both imprisonment and deportation rather than registering with the federal government.</p>
<p>They also hired some of the nation’s best constitutional lawyers. Together, they swarmed the courts with challenges to the Geary Act. In May 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear its first deportation case, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/149/698/case.html">Fong Yue Ting v. U.S.</a> and quickly ruled that deportation is also a realm of “absolute” authority held by Congress and the president. The court wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The provisions of the Constitution, securing the right of trial by jury and prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures, and cruel and unusual punishments, have no application.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, the U.S. Constitution did not apply to deportation. Immigration authorities could develop practices to identify, round up and deport noncitizens without constitutional review. </p>
<p>It was a stunning ruling even by 19th-century standards. So stunning that three of the justices issued scathing dissents, arguing that the U.S. Constitution applies to every law enforced within the United States. As Justice Brewer put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Constitution has potency everywhere within the limits of our territory, and the powers which the national government may exercise within such limits are those, and only those, given to it by that instrument.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But such dissent held no sway. Six years later, the U.S. Supreme Court tripled down on immigration control as exempt from judicial review. In that 1896 ruling, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/163/228/case.html">Wong Wing v. U.S.</a>, which was issued on the same day as the court upheld racial segregation laws in its infamous <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/163/537/case.html">Plessy v. Ferguson</a> decision, the court held that the Constitution does not apply to the conditions of immigrant detention.</p>
<p>By 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court had granted Congress and the president nearly unrestrained power over excluding, deporting and detaining noncitizens, both at U.S. borders and within the national territory. To date, they have used that authority to deport and forcibly remove more than <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15653.html">50 million people</a> and ban countless others from entering the country. Most of them are nonwhite, many of them poor and a disproportionate share non-Christian.</p>
<h2>Making America great again</h2>
<p>Over time, Congress and the courts placed several limits on what is allowable in immigration control. For example, the <a href="http://library.uwb.edu/Static/USimmigration/1965_immigration_and_nationality_act.html">1965 Immigration Reform Act</a> prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race, gender, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.” And several court <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/uploads/immigration/immig_west/E.pdf">rulings</a> have added a measure of constitutional protections to deportation proceedings and detention conditions. </p>
<p>But, in recent weeks, Trump and his advisers have tapped into the foundational architecture of U.S. immigration control to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-live-updates-9th-circuit-arguments-judge-rebuke-administration-claim-that-1486683892-htmlstory.html">argue</a> that the president’s executive orders on immigration control are “unreviewable” by the courts. As Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Miller <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/12/trump-administration-considering-narrower-travel-ban">put it</a>: The president’s executive powers over immigration control “will not be questioned.” </p>
<p>On <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/02/09/17-35105.pdf">Feb. 9</a>, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit turned down the administration’s “unreviewable” argument regarding the so-called Muslim ban. But Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/25/presidential-executive-order-enhancing-public-safety-interior-united">immigration enforcement order</a> still stands. This includes a provision that subjects even those unauthorized immigrants who are simply suspected of crime to immediate removal. It also denies many of the immigrants who unlawfully cross our borders the due process protections recently added to deportation proceedings. </p>
<p>If implemented as promised – that is, with a focus on “<a href="http://time.com/4657474/donald-trump-enrique-pena-nieto-mexico-bad-hombres/">bad hombres</a>” and the U.S.-Mexico border – Trump’s immigration plan will exacerbate the already <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9781479843978/">disproportionate impact</a> of U.S. immigration control on Latino immigrants, namely Mexicans and Central Americans. U.S. immigration may no longer target Chinese immigrants, but it remains one of the most highly racialized police projects within the United States.</p>
<p>Trump’s executive orders are pulling U.S. immigration control back to its roots, absolute and racial. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit pushed back against this interpretation, affirming the reviewability of the seven-country ban. But the decisions made during the Chinese exclusion era are likely to protect many of the president’s other orders from judicial review. That is, unless we overturn the settler mentality of U.S. immigration control. </p>
<p><em>To learn more about the history of U.S. immigration control, see <a href="http://editions.lib.umn.edu/immigrationsyllabus/">#immigrationsyllabus</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Lytle Hernandez currently receives funding from the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation, the UCLA Institute on Democracy and Inequality, and the UCLA Social Sciences Division.</span></em></p>From Chinese laborers to ‘bad hombres,’ the US settler mentality has perpetuated an immigration system that pushes out unwanted groups and bypasses the Constitution.Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Associate Professor, History and African-American Studies, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/720532017-01-30T03:50:29Z2017-01-30T03:50:29ZTrump’s immigration order is bad foreign policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154675/original/image-20170130-29611-10qfk8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A rally against President Donald Trump's order that restricts travel to the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Steven Senne</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/text-of-trump-executive-order-nation-ban-refugees/">banned the entry</a> of people from seven majority Muslim countries last week. Leaders as far apart ideologically as former Vice President <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/28/trump-immigration-ban-syria-muslims-reaction-lawsuits">Dick Cheney</a> and <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/2-iraqis-file-lawsuit-after-being-detained-in-ny-due-to-travel-ban/">Sen. Bernie Sanders</a> warned the ban could become a recruitment tool for terrorists. </p>
<p>In addition, the U.S. risks straining or losing important diplomatic ties and fragile relationships. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and even Theresa May have <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-calls-u-s-refugee-ban-unjustified-1485687277">warned</a> about the geopolitical effects of a ban on immigrants and refugees from predominantly Muslim countries. Iran has already promised to <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/iran-bans-us-citizens-entry-retaliation-549537">take “reciprocal measures”</a> after Trump’s immigration order, although the exact measures remain to be specified. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"825381179775971328"}"></div></p>
<p>Just last December, the al-Qaida affiliate in East Africa, Al-Shabab, used footage of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/donald-trumps-call-to-ban-muslim-immigrants/419298/">Trump’s call</a> for a ban on the entry of Muslims as part of a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35213286">recruitment film</a>.</p>
<p>Banning immigration from seven majority Muslim countries and selectively admitting Christians is a bad idea for many moral and legal reasons. A long history shows such policies also threaten national security. Our research for the book “<a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674729049">Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policies in the Americas</a>” shows the perils of policies targeting particular nationalities. </p>
<h2>Losing hearts and minds</h2>
<p>From the 19th century to 1965, the United States discriminated against various groups. In the 1920s, the U.S. established national origins <a href="http://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1930/compendia/statab/52ed/1930-04.pdf">quotas</a> that set the number of immigrants who were allowed to enter the U.S. from certain countries. These quotas were designed to restrict the entrance of southern and eastern Europeans because nativists like famed eugenecist Harry Laughlin and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge feared the newcomers were likely to be criminals, and even anarchist or Bolshevik terrorists. Anti-Catholic sentiment played a role as well. </p>
<p>The laws kept out Asians altogether on grounds that “no alien ineligible for citizenship shall be admitted to the United States” (43 Stat. 153. Sec. 13 (c)). Asians were ineligible for citizenship because of their race. The quotas gave 51,227 of the 164,667 annual spots for immigration to Germans, 3,845 to Italians and zero to Japanese.</p>
<p>Bipartisan coalitions ended this discrimination in large part because it hurt U.S. national security at key moments during World War II and the Cold War. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://archive.org/stream/whomweshallwelco00unit#page/52/mode/2up/search/world+war">presidential commission</a> after World War II found that U.S. exclusion of Japanese immigrants had contributed directly to the growth of Japanese militarism and helped motivate Japan’s attack on the United States in 1941. When the quotas ending Japanese immigration passed in 1924, the press in Japan declared a “National Humiliation Day” to protest the law. Seventeen years later, as the Japanese navy steamed toward Pearl Harbor, Commander Kikuichi Fujita <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=751">wrote in his diary</a> that it was time to teach the United States a lesson for its behavior, including the exclusion of Japanese immigrants.</p>
<p>During World War II, China became a major ally of the United States. Japan tried to drive a wedge between the Chinese and the Americans by portraying Japan as the defender of Asians against U.S. racism. The fact that the United States had banned Chinese immigration since <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/47th-congress/session-1/c47s1ch126.pdf">1882</a> through the Chinese Exclusion Act helped make the case. Japanese <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-67268245/the-sino-american-alliance-during-world-war-ii-and">media</a> in occupied China pointed to the hypocrisy of the Americans, who presented the United States as a friend of the Chinese while banning their entry.</p>
<p>A broad U.S. coalition called for Congress to end Chinese exclusion. President <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Immigration_Policy_1924_1952.html?id=1fLSAAAAMAAJ">Franklin Roosevelt</a> argued that repeal would “silence the distorted Japanese propaganda” and be “important in the cause of winning the war and of establishing a secure peace.” Congress halted the ban on Chinese naturalization in <a href="http://library.uwb.edu/Static/USimmigration/57%20stat%20600.pdf">1943</a> and allowed a symbolic annual quota. China remained the key U.S. ally in Asia during the war.</p>
<p>During the Cold War, the quota system posed a new national security problem. The Soviet Union and United States were competing to win the hearts and minds of Asians in battlegrounds like Korea and Vietnam. Radio Moscow’s <a href="https://archive.org/stream/whomweshallwelco00unit#page/52/mode/2up/search/moscow">broadcasts</a> to Asia pointed out that U.S. law continued to treat Asians as inferiors. How could Asians take the side of a country that shunned them?</p>
<p>During the Korean War, Sen. William Benton of Arkansas highlighted the folly of spending billions of dollars and suffering 100,000 U.S. casualties while continuing to restrict the entrance of Koreans. In 1952 he told the Senate:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We can totally destroy that investment, and can ruthlessly and stupidly destroy faith and respect in our great principles, by enacting laws that, in effect, say to the peoples of the world: ‘We love you, but we love you from afar. We want you but, for God’s sake, stay where you are.’”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By 1956, the Republican and Democratic party platforms both endorsed ending the national origins quotas. Congress finally ended the system in 1965.</p>
<h2>Post-9/11</h2>
<p>Americans saw the challenge of singling out nationalities again after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/22/politics/obama-nseers-arab-muslim-registry">National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS)</a> required male citizens of 25 countries who were in the United States on nonimmigrant visas to register with the government. With the exception of North Korea, all of the countries were predominantly Arab or Muslim. More than 1,000 immigrants were detained. None was convicted of terrorism.</p>
<p>Governments in the Middle East and South Asia that had been working with the United States to counter terror were <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061558405/the-closing-of-the-american-border">outraged by the harassment</a> of their citizens. It’s hard to work together when one part of the team feels denigrated by the other. The NSEERS program was suspended in 2011 by the Obama administration. Officials concluded that NSEERS had fueled the impression that the United States was hostile to Muslims without stopping criminal acts. </p>
<p>History shows that humiliating national or religious groups on the world stage by restricting their entry makes it harder to keep our allies. It can create new enemies. This ban may put the United States at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This isn’t the first time the US has banned people based on nationality. History shows these exclusions have put our national security at risk and caused rifts with foreign allies.David FitzGerald, Theodore E. Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations, Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San DiegoDavid Cook Martín, Professor of Sociology and Assistant Vice President of Global Education, Grinnell CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/681782016-11-07T08:36:11Z2016-11-07T08:36:11ZHow Jakarta’s first Chinese Indonesian governor became an easy target for radical Islamic groups<p>Jakarta saw its biggest protest in years on Friday, prompting president Joko Widodo to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/nov/05/indonesian-president-joko-widodo-cancels-australia-visit-amid-protests-in-jakarta">cancel his planned visit to Australia</a>. </p>
<p>Some Western media report that the rally of some 200,000 people marching in protest against the Chinese-Christian Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, was a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/world/asia/jakarta-protest-blasphemy-ahok-indonesia.html?_r=0">“show of strength”</a> and a sign of radical Islam <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/hard-line-strain-of-islam-gains-ground-in-worlds-largest-muslim-country-1478248172">“taking hold”</a> in Jakarta. </p>
<p>Indeed, there were many Muslim organisations that joined the rally, demanding Ahok to be jailed for blasphemy for “insulting Islam” over his comments criticising his opponents for using Koran verses against him. Groups such as the Islamic Student Association (HMI), the Islamic Mujaheedin Assembly (MMI) and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia all went along in the rally. The hardline Islamic militia group the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Defenders_Front">Islamic Defenders Front</a> (FPI), notorious for violent thuggery and attacks against minorities, organised the rally and was the loudest and most visible on the scene. </p>
<p>But the reality of the November 4 rally in Jakarta is much more complex than growing Islamic radicalism in Indonesia. </p>
<p>Racism, the political agenda of Purnama’s opponents in the upcoming gubernatorial race, and discontent from the urban poor over Purnama’s policy on forced evictions all factor in the protest turnout in addition to religious motives to defend Islam. </p>
<h2>Who is Ahok?</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144790/original/image-20161107-4718-1mpmyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144790/original/image-20161107-4718-1mpmyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144790/original/image-20161107-4718-1mpmyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144790/original/image-20161107-4718-1mpmyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144790/original/image-20161107-4718-1mpmyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144790/original/image-20161107-4718-1mpmyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144790/original/image-20161107-4718-1mpmyfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rally on Friday demanded the police to jail Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaya Purnama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Iqro Rinaldi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Last week’s rally was not the first protest against Ahok. FPI organised a rally in October 16, attracting thousands, after a video of Ahok criticising his political opponents for referencing a verse in the Koran to prevent people from voting for him went viral. He is running for governor in next year’s Jakarta gubernatorial election. </p>
<p>Ahok has apologised. But FPI reported him to the police for blasphemy, punishable with up to five years in prison under Indonesian law. The rally on Friday demanded the police to jail Ahok. </p>
<p>Ahok became the first Chinese Indonesian Jakarta governor when Jokowi left the seat after winning the presidential election. He was Jokowi’s deputy governor. </p>
<p>Ahok is an outlier in Indonesia’s politics, which is dominated by the Javanese Muslim majority. His ethnicity and religion make him a double minority in the world’s most populous Muslim majority. He also doesn’t come from Java, where Jakarta is located, and where national government administration in centred. He was regent of Belitung Timur in the Bangka-Belitung Islands. Before holding leadership position in the Jakarta administration, he was a member of parliament with the Golkar Party. He is a “rural kid” who came to the “capital”. </p>
<p>The gubernatorial election in February 2017 will be Ahok’s first time running for Jakarta governor. The PDI-P (Indonesia’s Democratic Party of Struggle) has endorsed his candidacy. But prior to that, Ahok managed to collect 2 million Jakarta ID cards as proof of Jakartans’ support for him to run as an independent. </p>
<p>Like his predecessor Jokowi, Ahok has become a symbol of merit-based politics. His governorship is proof that Indonesia has come a long way in its democracy after the collapse of Suharto’s regime. </p>
<p>Former education minister Anies Baswedan and the son of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, are also running for Jakarta governor. </p>
<h2>Racism, rivalry and discontent</h2>
<p>The protesters who joined the rally have various motives. Some are influenced by their disappointment with Ahok’s policy in forced evictions. Some protest due to their racist sentiments against Chinese Indonesians. Some genuinely want to defend Islam. </p>
<p>The YouTube video of Ahok’s criticising the use of Koran verses against him, which brought the wrath of Islamic groups in Indonesia, was posted by a man believed to be a supporter of Ahok’s opponent in the Jakarta governor race. </p>
<p>Islamic groups quickly took the bait. A video of FPI’s leader Habib Rizieq inciting people to kill Ahok surfaced not long after and went viral.</p>
<p>Accusing Ahok of blasphemy not only benefits the interests of Islamic groups, but also the political interests of his opponents and the economic interests of the urban poor. </p>
<p>Under Ahok’s leadership, thousands of urban poor have been displaced due to <a href="http://www.newmandala.org/making-enemies-friends/">forced evictions in Jakarta</a> to clean up settlements by the river banks. The poor are traditionally close to PDI-P, which declares itself to be the party of “the little people”. PDI-P support for Ahok’s candidacy as governor does not sit well with the victims of evictions. </p>
<p>During the rally, anti-Chinese sentiments were palpable. There were chants to “kill Ahok” and “crush the Chinese”. But this anti-Chinese sentiment is not rooted in radical Islam. As a global religion, Islam doesn’t care about race. The anti-Chinese sentiment is partly a result of institutionalised racism against the Chinese that hasn’t been resolved to this day. The Suharto regime banned expressions of Chinese culture and politically segregated the Chinese, a policy that was also present during the Dutch colonial rule. </p>
<p>Friday’s protest had “Defending Islam” as its slogan, but it is clear that various interests are behind the movement against Ahok. Rally organisers cunningly used the Islam card, which, judging from Friday’s rally turnout, does have currency among some Indonesian voters. Social media messages from rally organisers exploit Muslim religious identity to lure people to join the protest against Ahok. Chain messages in Whatsapp that suggested if one didn’t join the protest their faith in Islam was weak were circulated prior to the rally. </p>
<p>But playing this card is dangerous. Islam is transnational. It speaks to conservative Muslims who would march in a peaceful protest as well as violent jihadi groups such as Islamic State (IS). </p>
<p>We can already see the result. On social media, Indonesians who joins the rebel groups in Syria are posting picture of Ahok’s coffin. Radical Islam may be gaining ground from this episode, but it’s not merely of their own doing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noor Huda Ismail does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reality of the November 4 rally in Jakarta is much more complex than growing Islamic radicalism in Indonesia.Noor Huda Ismail, PhD Candidate in Politics and International Relations, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.