Ni hao!

Hello!

If all goes according to plan, when you read this I will be in Tianjin, China where I will be living for six months with my wife, Connie, and our two teen-age sons, Chris and Brad. I will be teaching environmental journalism to students at Nankai University and traveling around China, giving lectures as part of a Fulbright scholarship. “Why China?” a number of my friends have asked. Why would my wife and I want to transplant our family more than 9,000 miles away—far from the safety and security of our Michigan home?

These are good questions.

Certainly, one of the reasons is adventure. As a journalist and journalism professor, I thrive on adventure. I have traveled to more than 45 countries on all seven continents during my reporting career. I’ve hiked outside in minus 65 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures at the South Pole, flown through the “eye” of a blizzard over the North Atlantic and climbed to the top of several imposing mountains.

My family has joined me on trips to the British Isles and Australia where I’ve taught Michigan State University Study Abroad courses. They’ve also backpacked with me in the Rocky Mountains and participated in other outdoor adventures.

But none of these previous journeys compare in length or complexity with our trip to China. We see this as our family’s biggest adventure, yet.

Another reason for going to China is because of the challenge. We don’t expect our life to be easy in Tianjin. We will face many challenges—a difficult language, a very different culture, many frustrations in communications, the potential for exposure to exotic diseases and much more.

It will be challenging to teach western-style journalism in a country where there are few traditions of independent journalism and even fewer of investigative reporting about environmental issues. I have been told to expect that a representative of the Communist Party will attend my lectures and report to authorities what I have to say.

I will be teaching the first course in environmental journalism ever offered in the People’s Republic of China, according to Chinese officials.

Despite these many challenges, my family and I are very excited about experiencing life in China. We are eager to learn as much as we can about its people, history, technology, customs and culture.

More than 1.3 billion people live in China—one out of five people on Earth. It is one of the world’s most important nations and a country that will continue to grow in importance in the coming decades.

By 2025, according to many experts, China’s economy will become the world’s largest economy, surpassing the United States in size. China also is expected to play an increasingly important military and political role.

In 1816 Napoleon Bonaparte commented that, “When China wakes, it will shake the world.” Today, almost two centuries later, China is wakening in a way that will likely have a profound impact on the global community in the 21st century.

During the 1990s, the People’s Republic of China had one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The World Bank has estimated that since China’s economic policies were liberalized in 1978, more than 170 million Chinese have risen from absolute poverty. As many of its leaders and citizenry have embraced capitalism, hundreds of thousands of private companies have been established, creating an explosion of wealth—especially in the eastern part of the nation—and rapid industrialization in many formerly agricultural areas.

While this rapid industrial growth has been beneficial for many, it has also caused some serious side effects. As Yale historian Paul Kennedy notes in his book, “Preparing for the Twenty-First Century,” China’s rapid growth has already caused serious air and water pollution problems, the emission of enormous quantities of greenhouse gases and the loss of billions of tons of topsoil. “China’s industrial ambitions…pose a threat to the planet,” he writes.

By some measures, China has the most serious air pollution in the world. According to the World Health Organization, seven out of 10 of the cities with the highest levels of sulfur dioxide and particulates are in China. Six of the 10 cities in the world with the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide are Chinese. All of these pollutants can cause serious lung disease and other illnesses.

Despite these problems, there is evidence that the Chinese government is wakening to the need to clean up the nation’s pollution. According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, the government spent $43.5 billion between 1996 and 2000 to clean up environmental problems. In January 2002 the government pledged to spend nearly double that amount—$84 billion—in the next five years. The target is to cut the total amount of pollution in the air, water and soil by 10 percent of 2000 levels.

Will China achieve these goals? Will it be able to make its air fit to breathe and its water safe to drink?

These are some of the questions I hope to find answers to during my six-month journey to China. You’ll be reading more about what I learn—and my family’s adventures—in future issues of EJ.

Jim Detjen and his family expect to be reachable in China via e-mail at detjen@msu.edu. If that doesn’t work, contact Barb Miller, assistant to the Knight Chair, at (517) 432-1415 or mille384@msu.edu. Barb should know most of the time how to reach him.