Journal
This section really opened my eyes about
the daily frustrations that I will likely face while studying abroad. However,
the acknowledgement of these issues being part and parcel to the experience,
and that they will get better with time, put me at ease about functioning properly
(or not) while abroad in China and Japan.
Some of my biggest concerns about going
abroad are homesickness, loneliness or lack of friends, and having difficulty
communicating with students from my host countries. However, I see now that
these are lows that are felt by almost every student who studies in another
country. I am no stranger to being off on my own for an extended period of
time, but the level of difference between my home and host countries intimidated
me, and I thought that my homesickness would be worse when overseas. Even if that
turns out to be the case, I feel more at ease knowing that I will be surrounded
by students who will probably feel more-or-less the same way about the
situation. Additionally, thinking about the potential high points of my trip
have helped me to cope with the fear of encountering the low points. One of the
things I have always wanted to do is visit Nara, Japan. Seeing Nara as a
destination in our schedule made me so happy and it is among the many experiences
that I am looking forward to during the second half of the course.
Additionally, the thought of being able to visit the Great Wall is
mind-boggling at the moment. To think that I have the opportunity to see what I
had always thought of as some inaccessible destination is a dream come true, to
say the very least.
Something I never thought of as a high
point until recently is making new friends in my host country and possibly from
other countries. Being from a high school that was heavily involved with Rotary
and its student exchange program, I have had the privilege of meeting students
from France, Ecuador, Slovakia, Japan, and Taiwan. The thought of making more
friends and learning about their homes and cultures is really exciting. While I
know that adjusting to my host country and some of the customs and mannerisms
of my classmates will be difficult at first, I realize that this is the case
for just about everyone. Before reviewing the material for this week, I did not
really consider that students from my host country would have to adapt to my
cultural differences as well. Knowing that it will be a learning experience for
everyone involved not only put me at ease about the experience, but it has made
me more open to learning and adapting, as well as teaching others who are just
as willing to learn.
I am aware that the process of functioning
perfectly will not happen overnight, no matter how much background information
I go in with. That being said, I hope to adapt as well as I can in order to
have the most productive and enjoyable learning experience that I can.
Blog
The central government of the People's Republic of China is
divided among several state organs that are responsible for different sectors
of the political system. The primary organs of state power are
the National People's Congress (NPC), the President, and
the State Council. Members of the State Council include the Premier,
a variable number of Vice Premiers, five State Councilors, and 29
ministers and heads of State Council commissions. During the 1980s
there was an attempt made to separate party and state functions, with the party
deciding general policy and the state carrying it out. The attempt was later
abandoned in the 1990s with the result that the political leadership within the
state are also the leaders of the party. This dual structure thereby creates a
single centralized focus of power.
At
the same time there has been a move to separate party and state offices at
levels other than the central government. This frequently causes conflict
between the chief executive and the party secretary, and this conflict is
widely seen as intentional to prevent either from becoming too powerful. Some
special cases are the Special
Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau where
the Mainland Chinese national laws do not apply at all and the autonomous
regions where the chief executive is typically a member of the local
ethnic group while the party general secretary is non-local and
usually Han Chinese.
Under
the Constitution of China, the NPC
is the highest organ of state power in China. It meets annually for about two
weeks to review and approve major new policy directions, laws, the budget, and
major personnel changes. Most national legislation in the PRC is adopted by
the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Most initiatives
are presented to the NPCSC for consideration by the State Council after
previous endorsement by the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee. “Although
the NPC generally approves State Council policy and personnel recommendations,
the NPC and its standing committee has increasingly asserted its role as the
national legislature and has been able to force revisions in some laws. For
example, the State Council and the Party have been unable to secure passage of
a fuel tax to finance the construction of expressways” (Lonely Planet).
Today, the major political debate
circulating throughout China is whether or not Hong Kong should be allowed to
become independent from China and have its own democracy. Since the former
colony’s independence from Britain, China has maintained sovereignty there. Recently,
the Chinese government promised direct elections for chief executives by 2017.
However, China's top legislative
committee ruled that voters would only be able to choose from a limited
list of candidates that were selected by a nominating
committee formed "in accordance with" Hong Kong's largely pro-Beijing
election committee, a move which democracy activists argue gives China the
ability to remove any candidates it disapproves of.
Additionally,
the legal head of the central government’s liaison office, Wang Zhenmin, stated
that Hong Kong has become part of “red
China,” since reunification because the Communist
Party and the country are inseparable, indicating that democracy independent of
China in Hong Kong will have to wait.
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