Eyes on China | Tomoki Kamo, Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management
Exactly 30 years ago, I went to study in China. It was September 1995. Having graduated from the Faculty of Policy Management in April and immediately entering the master's program at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, my year-long life as an international student began at Fudan University in Shanghai.
I had chosen my undergraduate faculty and proceeded to graduate school with the intention of studying Chinese and contemporary Chinese politics, and I had hoped to study in Beijing during my enrollment. At the time, because I was studying abroad with the support of a scholarship program from the Kazan Foundation, I could not decide on the host university myself. Although I submitted a list of preferred destinations, the Chinese Ministry of Education made the final decision. Even so, I was convinced that I would be studying at a university in Beijing.
However, the result was Shanghai. When I received the notice, I looked up at the sky. Despite wanting to study politics, I felt depressed that I would be studying in the economic city of Shanghai rather than the capital, Beijing. With those feelings, I crossed the sea.
Shanghai, not Beijing. I believe this was a major turning point for me as a researcher. Going to Shanghai gave me the opportunity to become aware of China's diversity. Perhaps it is best to say that through a year of studying abroad, I learned the obvious fact that China is not just Beijing. What I reaffirmed after gaining a bit more specialized knowledge is that the dynamism of Chinese politics lies in the bargaining between the central and local governments. One might imagine the politics of an authoritarian state to be as uniform as a thick steel plate. However, that perception is a stereotype; as the saying "government orders do not leave Zhongnanhai" suggests, policies are not decided solely in Beijing. The social atmosphere loosens in proportion to the distance from Beijing. This remains true even today.
Even now, 30 years after my study abroad, I visit Beijing frequently, but I have never stayed there long-term. After my life as a student in Shanghai, I had the opportunity to stay in Hong Kong twice for a total of four years. This means I have observed the center from the periphery. I look at Beijing from Shanghai, and capture it from Hong Kong. Beyond Hong Kong, there is Singapore. Conversely, there is Taipei. I look at Beijing from a distance. It was very good for me to acquire the habit of observing the subject from such a distance. Of course, I would like to try a long-term stay in Beijing someday.
Soon after starting my studies, I made a Chinese friend for "mutual language learning." He truly took care of me. In the spring of 1996, six months after my life in Shanghai began, I traveled around visiting the universities where his high school friends had enrolled, and afterwards, I stayed at his family home. It was a period of over a month living in a rural village amidst the distant, cold snow. I can never forget this time. To me, who had only a shallow understanding picked up during my undergraduate years that "to know China, one must know the rural villages," it taught me the weight of "regional research."
In these 30 years, China's self-perception, its external behavior, and the environment surrounding China have changed significantly. China, which has increased its national power through economic success, has gained the power to drive the flux of the international order. The international community finds assertiveness in the external behavior of a China that has come to recognize itself as a "major power." Is the international order that China needs for peace and prosperity the same as the international order that Japan needs for peace and prosperity? Such questions are being raised.
While structural factors such as a state's position and power dynamics in the international community determine its actions, domestic factors like its political system and the perceptions of its political leaders also greatly influence a state's behavior. If that is the case, rather than viewing China's diplomacy as independent, it is better to understand it by linking it to the logic of domestic politics. As a specialist in Chinese politics, I simply cannot limit my research interests to domestic affairs alone. When discussing Chinese diplomacy, I have strived for an internal understanding of it. I now think that the origin of this research style may lie in the fact that my study abroad destination 30 years ago was Shanghai instead of Beijing.
This summer, I visited Fudan University and Nanjing University with undergraduate and graduate students from my laboratory. Even after 30 years, the exchange with Fudan University and other Chinese universities continues. The students who visited Shanghai and Nanjing this year will likely still be looking at China 30 years from now. I wonder how these students, once they have become adults, will have matured their perspectives for observing China.