China trip students blog about their experiences, covering LGBT policy challenges, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and more
Each year, 15 Ford School graduate students travel to China for two weeks to study the nation’s policy environment. In country, they meet with a cross-section of leaders in the policy community and experience the nation’s history and evolution firsthand. They also visit graduate students of public policy and public administration—students who are enrolled in some of China’s leading policy programs.
The 2015 course, under the direction of Ford School Professor Ann Lin, took place from May 3-15, with visits to Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing. During their travels, students met with:
- China’s former minister of science and technology to discuss his current work coordinating the nation’s scientific response to global warming;
- the Mexican ambassador to China, who spoke about his country’s investment and trade relationships with China and the similarities of their development challenges;
- the U.S. Embassy, to discuss some of the strategic challenges in the U.S./China economic relationship; and
- the National Development and Reform Commission, were students learned about the nation’s annual and five-year economic plans.
Along the way, participating students blogged about their experiences, with stories about:
- the Beijing LGBT Center, an NGO that is working to empower China’s LGBT community to live rewarding lives unconstrained by gender identity and sexual orientation;
- Women’s Voice, an advocacy organization that seeks to reverse systemic sexism and gender inequity as perpetuated by the media;
- the U.S. economic strategy in China and East Asia, where China has been excluded from the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations;
- the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, which commemorates those killed by the Japanese Army between 1937 and 1938; and
- The National Museum of China’s “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibit, which portrays the nation’s history from early interactions with westerners during the Opium War to the nation’s emerging leadership in the international arena.
To read student blogs from the trip, visit U-M Ford School in China. For more information about the annual China trip and pre-trip course (open to all U-M students), visit the Ford School’s course description.