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32
Mr. S
MITH
. Ms. Lawrence, thank you very much for your testi-
mony. 
And, without objection, your full statement and that of all of our 
distinguished witnesses will be made a part of the record, but I 
thank you for it. 
Now, Mr. Daly. 
STATEMENT OF MR. ROBERT DALY, DIRECTOR, KISSINGER IN-
STITUTE ON CHINA AND THE U.S., WOODROW WILSON 
INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS 
Mr. D
ALY
. I would like to thank the chair and the other members 
of the committee for the chance to discuss a very important set of 
issues with you today. 
These are issues that I have worked on from within government 
and academia for almost 30 years. And I can tell you, Mr. Chair-
man, that all of your concerns are very well-founded, and they re-
quire constant attention from the practitioners in the field who are 
working with China. There are no easy answers to this. It requires 
balance. 
Many of my Chinese colleagues and friends would be surprised 
to hear that there was a discussion today about Chinese influence 
on American universities, because, in their experience, the influ-
ence has flowed almost entirely in the other direction since 1854, 
when the first Chinese earned a degree from an American Univer-
sity. 
In fact, the very idea of the university, the modern university in 
China, was introduced from the West and primarily from the 
United States by people like John Leighton Stuart, by Johns Hop-
kins University, Oberlin, Yale, and Harvard, who brought the idea 
of the academic disciplines at university degrees to China in the 
first place. And the model for China’s universities, their structures, 
their degrees, their governance—with the exception of the involve-
ment of the Chinese Communist Party, which is pervasive, as you 
suggest—this model comes primarily from the United States. 
Even today, Chinese universities are adapting American aca-
demic standards and models to suit China’s needs, and Chinese 
scholars seek partnership with American experts and publication 
in American journals. Furthermore, young Chinese, as you have 
mentioned, now comprise 29 percent of all foreign students in the 
U.S., and approximately 2 million have pursued degrees here since 
1979. 
On the other side of the equation, American academics rarely 
seek publication in Chinese journals, most of which are of low qual-
ity and many of which deal in plagiarized and faked research. And 
few American students pursue degrees from Chinese universities. 
Most Americans students who visit China—and I support them to 
do so, I believe strongly in the value of study abroad, but most of 
these students go for short-term language and cultural classes as 
part of U.S. degree programs. So Chinese education, as such, holds 
very little allure for Americans. 
So there can be no question that American universities have far 
greater impact on China than China has on them, just as there can 
be no question that American soft power in China overall—our in-
fluence on Chinese institutions, the aspirations, tastes, and values 
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33
of the Chinese people—while they are not what we would like them 
to be, dwarf China’s soft power here. I think that that fact has to 
be kept clearly in mind, because calls for reconsideration of our pol-
icy of engagement with China are growing more strident. 
Still, yes, as you note, China does exert influence on American 
universities, and that seems to be growing. And it comes, I believe, 
primarily from American colleges’ and universities’ need for and 
their fear of losing Chinese sources of financing, although it doesn’t 
come only from there. 
We should mention, too, that while we are talking about our con-
cerns about Chinese impacts on America, we should recognize the 
contribution that educational exchanges with China have made to 
the United States. This is not just a story about the flow of Chinese 
money into American universities. Even more beneficial has been 
the flow of Chinese talent and energy into American society. 
Many of the Chinese students who study here remain in the U.S. 
after graduation, and this new generation of immigrants, like their 
predecessors, is providing a vital infusion of expertise into every 
professional field and academic discipline in the United States. So 
we should recognize today that when we speak of Chinese students, 
this is not to demonize them; we are also speaking of our American 
neighbors, colleagues, and friends, and they are making a big con-
tribution to this country. 
We should also note that money isn’t the only thing that Amer-
ican universities want from the PRC. They also cooperate with 
China in order to fulfill their academic missions. American schol-
ars, if they are to be leaders in their field, need access to Chinese 
archives, data, and research sites. They need to interview Chinese 
experts and survey Chinese populations. They need study-abroad 
opportunities for American students. American students now can-
not be leaders in their field unless they have knowledge in China. 
In short, because the PRC is now central, whether we like it or 
not, to nearly every global issue, be it strategic, economic, techno-
logical, environmental, public health, U.S. universities cannot do 
their work, they cannot be universal, unless they engage with 
China to some degree. 
This is a new situation not only for American universities but for 
American corporations, professional institutions, American 
filmmakers, American subnational governments. They now have 
China interests, China relations, and China policies. This is a posi-
tive development, I believe, in the main, but it has its dangers. 
American universities fear ill repute in China. They fear being 
cut off from China. They fear the loss of Chinese tuition and fees. 
And this fear does give China leverage, and China knows it. 
We should, furthermore, be worried about how China will use the 
leverage. As the chairman has mentioned, Document 9 and fol-
lowing documents make very clear that issues like constitutional 
democracy, civil society, neoliberal economics, and Western ideas of 
journalism cannot be discussed openly in Chinese universities or in 
the Chinese media. 
Earlier this year, China’s Minister of Education, Yuan Guiren, 
told a meeting of Chinese academic leaders in Beijing that they 
should reduce the number of Western-published textbooks in their 
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