It is getting even harder for Western scholars to do research in China, The Economist, Apr. 5, 2023.
Access to databases of vital materials is dwindling
For much of the past century, foreign academics have had a tough time learning about China. Few could visit the country when it was ruled by Mao Zedong. Some instead tracked newspapers like the People’s Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece. These offered plenty of ideological hectoring but few believable details about people’s lives. Reading dry party documents, an art known as Pekingology, was like “swallowing sawdust by the bucketful”, as one renowned China-watcher put it.
Some Western scholars went to meet refugees in Hong Kong, which was then under British rule. Interviewees often assumed that the researchers were spies (some probably were). One academic recalled his struggles trying to find out about the legal system under Mao. His informant in Hong Kong kept trying to tell him where China’s airfields were hidden.
(To be continued…)