Shanghai

January was a busy month, since we had a senior SAIS group visiting Nanjing for the annual Joint Academic Committee (JAC) meeting between Johns Hopkins U. and Nanjing U. Yours truly once again represented the HNC international faculty, and the visit of such distinguished persons offered an opportunity for other academic venues – such as Prof. Lampton’s presentation about China-U.S. relations at the Hopkins China Forum in Shanghai.

I was pleased to be able to attend, since I was also in Shanghai for UBS’ Greater China Conference 2016. Simon Powell organized a panel session addressing ‘Pollution Pains: China’s Ongoing Battle to Improve Its Environment,’ and I served with two very knowledgeable environmental specialists: Debra Tan, who runs China Water Risk, an NGO which is the most effective voice about China’s other (and she believes more critical!) significant environmental problem; and Yuan Yan, a Project Manager at the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), the well-known NGO founded by environmentalist Ma Jun (who publicizes information about polluters to bring about change, and similarly has had an important impact on water pollution control efforts). China Water Risk was actually a spin-off of IPE, & I had met Debra a number of years ago in Beijing; I hadn’t met Yan, so that was a definite plus. We did an electronic before-and-after Q&A, and our session didn’t change too many minds…. but those we did influence became slightly more pessimistic, as the nature and scale of environmental problems the country faces became even more evident.

I was in Shanghai once more just a few days later, this time heading home… and took the opportunity to use the magnetic levitation (maglev) system that connects the city with its airport. We picked up the Maglev at the Longyang Road Station in Pudong – and were whisked to the airport at more than 300 km/hour (i.e., 187 mph). Having taken the high-speed train from Nanjing to Shanghai, & then the Maglev to the airport, it was disappointing to get to Newark Airport… and then have to queue with our luggage to use the AirTrain elevator, because the escalator was broken. [AirTrain itself was shut down for repairs for several months in 2014, and moves are now underway to replace it completely.]