• • • • • • • THIS professors discussed year, we watched history entirely different as­ in the making as the Two New Perspectives on History pects of the crisis in Chinese government China. responded to the student uprisings in Tiananmen Professor Goldstein focused on the United States' Square. In an effort to broaden our understanding and China's resolution of the classic conflict be­ of these tumultuous events, Gordon Henderson, tween national self-interest and national values, Ph.D., and Martin Goldstein, Ph.D., professors of and Professor Henderson discussed the media's government and politics, shared their thoughts coverage of the crisis and the United States' re­ with Widener readers. During interviews the two sponse to it. • Government and Political Science Professors Martin Goldstein and Gordon Henderson kept a dose eye on the disturbing events as they unfolded in China ea rli er this year. DR. GOLDSTEIN NOTES that Chinese stu­ DR. HENDERSON OFFERS a different per­ dents had been protesting and demonstrating for spective on the events surrounding Tiananmen more freedom for seven weeks prior to the weekend Square: he focuses on the media's coverage ofthe of June 3-4 when government troops used tanks crisis and our response to it. "Revolutions have and automatic weapons to clear the area. "Since always fascinated Americans," says Professor the incident, government officials have said ap­ Henderson. "It may simply be a part of our na­ proximately 30 students died in that operation, tional character, and the recent civil disobedience but independent sources say that hundreds, possi­ in China was no exception." bly thousands of students were killed by soldiers," Dr.Henderson says the media understand and he says. In what diplomats promote the American see as an attempt to pro­ fascination with rebellion. tect its image abroad, Newsmen tuned into that China's state-controlled interest as well as some national newspapers basic, unstated American stopped reporting mass beliefs as they covered the arrests, and harrowing unfolding action in China. pictures of interrogations "The U.S. media will appeared only briefly on only cover an international television. More disturb­ story ifit somehow affects ing, in Dr. Goldstein's American interests," says opinion, is that Chinese Henderson. The China intellectuals describe the story not only affected repression as worse than American economic inter­ Mao Tse-tung's radical Cultural Revolution ests, it touched some of our basic beliefs about of the late 1960s because the recent purges were democracy and the American spirit." more systematic. -continued on page 20 -continued on page 20 WI DENE RU NIVE RS ITY 19 GOLDSTEIN HENDERSON continued from page 19 continued from page 19 Sino-American Relations The Triumph of Democracy "Both the U.S. and Chinese responses to the Henderson points out that the media have por­ events in Tiananmen Square have their roots in trayed China as becoming more receptive to the 20th century Sino-American diplomatic history," West as well as more democratic and capitalistic. explains Professor Goldstein. "Nearly 100 years Yet, he asserts, China's cultural history differs ago, the U.S. instituted an Open Door Policy which greatly from ours. ''We shouldn't expect a culture encouraged China to allow Western coun­ which values the group tries to establish spheres of influence rather than the indi- within China's vast geographical bounda­ vidual, and was ruled Yet Goldstein points out that ries." During the tumultuous years pre­ by despotic warlords One of the most ceding the 1949 Communist revolution in for centuries, to feel interesting aspects of despite recent overtures China, the United States strongly sup­ any natural compul­ toward the West, China's ported Chiang Kai-Shek, leader ofthe N a­ sion to turn toward the TIananmen tionalist Party. More recent foreign policy American democracy." Square incidents was 5,000 year history is charac­ gestures, such as the Nixon initiatives in History has shown that terized by isolationist policies China, resulted in a mutually welcomed China opens and closes the American media's exchange of cultural and technological in- to the West occasion­ response, according to "best symbolized by its formation. ally when it is in Great Wall." Yet Goldstein points out that despite China's best interest to Gordon Henderson. recent overtures toward the West, China's do so, explains Hender- 5,000 year history is characterized by son. He notes that isolationist policies ''best symbolized by similar openings to the West occurred in the nine­ its Great Wall." As nations around the world de­ teenth century and earlier. cried China's response to the student protests in "Right now, China needs the West's technology June, Chinese officials warned the international in order to rise as a world power. But to perceive community to cease "gross interference" in China's this as a turn toward democracy, as the press has internal affairs. "Ironically," said Goldstein, "both tried to portray it, would be a misreading of his­ the Bush administration and Chinese officials were tory. China wants U.S. technology, not necessarily confronted with the same problem: how could they our ideology. The media have plugged into a basic respond to the crisis without jeopardizing national American belief that democracy will triumph over self-interest and national ideals?" all other systems. Newsmen implied this in their China coverage." The Bush Administration's Response He pointed out that this parallels U.S. media The advantages afforded the U.S. through alli­ coverage of situations in Afghanistan and EI Sal­ ance with China are obvious: the geopolitical bal­ vador. ance against neighboring U.S.S.R. , and a contin­ "The media devoted much time to describing ued exchange of not only tourists but technological human rights violations in China and elsewhere. information have significant implications for both It is an implicit recognition that things like that nations. In Goldstein's opinion, these circumstances could not and do notgo on in the U.S. It implies that complicated the challenges facing President Bush we are superior and plays on the basic American when he considered his response to the Chinese belief that we are good people." crisis: how could he voice traditional American Perhaps, says Henderson, the Chinese co~er­ support for the democratic reforms sought by the age also taps into our still unresolved national Chinese students without damaging ever-improv­ remorse about losing in Vietnam. ing relations with China? "Maoist China supported the North Vietnam­ The president resolved the problem carefully, ese. A rejection of Maoist China by its own youth according to Goldstein. Although Mr. Bush limited may somehow be a moral victory for the U.S." some technical and military aid to China in the But for all the intense media coverage, Hender­ aftermath of the events in Tiananmen Square, he son thinks that attention will return to the Soviet nevertheless permitted the sale of four Boeing Union. aircraft to China. He thus avoidedjeopardizing our "The media are very episodic. Stories disappear country's self-interests by supporting important with the same intensity that they appear. China economic exchanges, and reinforced national ide­ has come under its leaders' control again, and is, als by applauding democratic reforms advocated therefore, no longer of interest to American read­ by the students. ers. The media boys on the bus have moved on so -continued on page 30 they won't miss the next big story." . 20 WID EN ER · AUTUMN 1989 The new50 ,000 square foo t Law Sc hool feotures 36 faculty affices, libra ry space fo r 100,000 volumes, classrooms, and more. enrolled in Harrisburg's daytime Harrisburg! program, and the rest are pursu­ ing their law degrees during the evening. Harrisburg Branch students are taught by nine professors, three of whom teach Wo WOULD HAVE imag;ned that a legal writing. Dean Santoro says the faculty will fledgling law school holding classes in the Wilming­ eventually number 34. ton Y. W. C.A. nearly twenty years ago would emerge Although the Delaware Campus focuses on as one of the fastest-growing institutions on the corporate law, the Harrisburg Branch emphasizes East Coast in 1989? policy law. Not surprisingly, some of the Harris­ Sounds impossible, but that's exactly what's burg Branch students are employed at the Capitol happened to the Widener University School of and other state agencies. These students view Law. Founded as the Delaware Law School by their legal studies as a way to advance their attorney Alfred Avins, 150 students attended careers. Some of these students, says Associate classes held in the Y.W.C.A. on King Street in Dean John Gedid, do not intend to practice law. downtown Wilmington in 1971. Today, more than They are attending the Harrisburg Branch as a ten times that number attend the Widener Univer­ way to increase their understanding of legal is­ sity School of Law on two campuses with state-of­ sues. the-art facilities in Wilmington and Harrisburg. "The Law School has grown rapidly in a very How did these remarkable changes occur? Why did short period of time to the point where today the Widener decide to expand into Central Penn­ Widener University School of Law is the fifth syvlania? largest in the country with an enrollment of1,576," Encouraged by feasibility studies indicating a says President Robert J. Bruce. "The quality of our need for a law school in the Harrisburg area, faculty and our state-of-the-art facilities will con­ Widener wasted no time in searching for an appro­ tinue to attract well quali- priate site. With the invaluable help of business­ fied students from across man, civic leader, and philanthropist John Var­ the country." .