US scholar's take on how shifting US-China relations affect a Tsinghua classroom
- Schwarzman College course becomes frontline for US-China tech tension, with students 'more cautious' about voicing opinions on export controls or industrial policy.
- Prof. Denis Simon says leadership summits improve classroom atmosphere, but warns Washington's tendency to recategorize 'yellow' areas (conditional cooperation) into 'red' (security threats) creates a dangerous 'burden of proof' shift.
- International students, not American or Chinese, are injecting true global perspective, refusing to pick sides between superpowers and demanding access to both US capital and Chinese manufacturing.
- Simon's own US-based China seminar was axed over 'reputational risk', leading to his paradox: American universities becoming less competitive by refusing to study their rival.
- Red-yellow-green framework emerges as the only sane way to discuss AI, chips, and data governance as 'cooperation' is redefined as merely agreeing on how to disagree.
Brief Summary
A US professor at Beijing's Schwarzman College is discovering that teaching innovation policy while Washington and Beijing duel over chips is like trying to discuss weather during a hurricane. Denis Simon's classroom timeline is now synced to summit visits, but the real lesson is that students are learning to think one thing and say another—a classic academic survival skill now required for global tech policy.
The president of 'talking' may be back, but the substance remains frozen. Export controls are still a minefield, AI is an arms race, and the professor's nuanced red-yellow-green framework for risk is being steamrolled by American politics that wants everything either pure or perilous. Simon's eerie warning: US universities are killing their own China expertise because it's politically toxic, while students from neither superpower quietly wonder why they must choose a side in this tech cold war.
Why This Matters
This is your life, not just a seminar abroad. If you depend on technology—a smartphone, a laptop, a car, or medicine—you are living inside this 'red-yellow-green' system. When officials refuse to distinguish between a security threat and a business dispute, your products get pricier, your supply chains fray, and your ability to study, work, or partner internationally shrinks. The classroom's caution is your caution: you are already self-censoring in job interviews and strategy meetings.
The real personal stake is the 'burden of proof' shift. Once officials ask 'can you prove it's completely safe?' rather than 'why restrict it?', everything becomes a risk to be managed, not an opportunity to be seized. That's why the professor insists cooperation can just mean agreeing on what happens when we disagree. Because when the hotline rings—whether for a chip shortage or an AI accident—you'll want that channel to exist, not just a meme about it.