It’s seems okay so far, a nice small class size and my professor seems nice. Though he did make me pause a few times. I couldn’t gauge where he lies politically as he seems to see Trump as a joke while also making neutral comments/examples on the likes of Danielle Smith. It is the first class so I’m not going to make quick judgements of his stances. What did make me slightly uneasy is his sprinkled comments about China here and there.
By comments I mean him using China as an example for a few of the terms we were learning about. The first comment that came up was China using ”soft power” to influence African countries and to push Chinese culture on said countries. He gave the example of the push for learning the Chinese language.
The next time he brought up China was when we discussed Jus Soli and Jus Sanguinis, this sparked the conversation about the idea of dual-citizenship and how China is very against it. You can only be Chinese, nothing else.
The last time he brought up China was in regards to Taiwan. We were learning about what the definition of “State” was:
- building blocks of politics
- legal entity
- sovereignty—absolute control
- territoriality
- population
- government
- external recognition (UN)
Taiwan was brought up as an example of a place wanting to become sovereign, a state of its own, but China having absolute power to veto their request.
At this point I put a little star in my notebook that my Professor seems to be very focused on China. He never had anything good to say but so far he hasn’t said anything explicitly negative.
Anyway that was my first day of PoliSci, by the end of it I sent in a request to join the model UN club lol.
If anyone has some great resources on China to dispel any misinformation, both common and obscure, I would appreciate it very much. Even just pointing me in the direction of certain books and/or historical events would be incredibly helpful.
If any of you would like me to share more of my experiences in, not only my Political Science class, but also Psychology, let me know!
I’m wary of people that fixate on China too, especially people that consider themselves educated about it. More often than not, their understanding of Chinese politics begins and ends with what gets publicized in western media. A similar thing happened a decade ago where there was a surge of Iraq and Afghanistan experts whose knowledge about those countries didn’t extend past the daily headlines.
Your professor may or may not be one of these people, but it certainly doesn’t inspire confidence that all 3 of the things he mentioned about China have been corporate news talking points. And that everything he used China as an example for has better western analogues.
I don’t have any book recommendations for you, but I can tell you that Taiwan is what it is because of the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War between the CPC and the KMT. And afaik, the KMT doesn’t want independence for Taiwan, it wants sovereignty over the whole of China.
Btw I’m interested in hearing more about your political science class because I’ve heard nothing but terrible things about them. I especially wanna know if Marx is mentioned at all because he does get name dropped a lot in sociology.
Apparently Marxism will be discussed, as it is listed in our course outline! I’m nervous for when it comes up because I’m super sensitive lol
It’s weird that he’s in the outline, but you weren’t given the Marxist definition of “state”
We were not. We haven’t gotten to the Marxist section yet, so we’ll see. I’ll continue to post about my experiences and what is generally being taught.
Let’s hope it isn’t a caricaturized portrayal that’s breezed through in a week 🙏