Influences on policy
Here's an example to use when asking your students to sort out the domestic from the global -- the historical from the contemporary influences on policy making. (You could create a little 4-cell matrix from those variables and ask students to find examples of each type of influence.)From the Washington Post:
Backstage Role of China's Army in Tibet Unrest Is a Contrast to 1989
"As Chinese security forces blanketed Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas over the past month, the regular army remained discreetly in the background, under orders to let police take the lead in suppressing the unrest that exploded in Lhasa and quickly spread to adjoining provinces.
"The backstage role played by the People's Liberation Army marked a sharp change from China's last big protests, in 1989. During that crisis, PLA troops using tanks and automatic weapons moved in to quell rioting in Tibet and crush pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of unarmed civilians.
"The decision to minimize military intervention this time suggested that the Communist Party leadership did not consider the Tibet crisis to be as serious as the 1989 protests, when China's entire ruling system was thought to be under challenge. Analysts here also saw the recent lower-key response as reflecting official concern over the reaction abroad if the army were to deploy massively against internal unrest as China prepares to host the Beijing Olympics in August...
"The shift in approach by President Hu Jintao and his Communist Party lieutenants reflected political sensitivities that still surround memories of 1989...
"The party Propaganda Bureau has worked tirelessly since then to restore the military's image...
"Hu and his premier, Wen Jiabao, both had prominent roles in the 1989 resort to the military... Hu was party secretary in Tibet... and imposed martial law there to give soldiers a freer hand. Wen, a rising star in 1989, was photographed just behind a senior party leader, Zhao Ziyang, as Zhao tried in vain to persuade students to leave Tiananmen Square before the army attacked..."
Labels: China, globalization, policy
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:51 AM
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