China's Domestic Economic Belt

Less well known on the world stage than China's land and sea "One Belt, One Road" and "Maritime Silk Road" is China's Domestic Economic Belt along the Yangtze River from densely-populated and heavily-polluted Shanghai, west to the lake region around Wuhan (where COVID-19 originated), and still farther southwest to Chongqing, population over 30 million, larger than Shanghai and Beijing (home to OneSpace, China's solid-fueled commercial spacecraft industry, specializing in launching small satellites) and Chengdu, where police just raided an underground church about to commemorate the June, 1989 democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square. (This is an opportunity for students to trace the Yangtze River on a map of China.)

Attention to ecology along this Yangtze River route is a priority in China. It entails:

•  Closing polluting chemical plants
•  Restoration of lakes and wetlands 
• Sewage treatment 
• Regulating the fishing industry
• Developing clean air technology (See earlier post,"How to Meet the Clean Air Challenge.")
• Integrating non-polluting energy sources into the existing power grid'
• Building new eco-friendly communities (See earlier post, "Priority: Eliminate generating electricity from fossil fuels.")

A new project in China's far western reaches demonstrates Beijing's focus on developing non-polluting energy sources. Where the Yangtze is known as the Jinsha Jiang River, the new Lawa hydroelectric dam will generate two billion watts of power, the same energy supplied by the U.S. Hoover Dam, on the border between Sichuan and the Tibetan Plateau.

     Development along the Yangtze also indicates China's interest in technological progress.  Economic assistance is going to the Donghu New Technology Development Zone east of Wuhan. The zone houses the FiberHome Technology Group, an optic fiber communications center, and the Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation. Producing memory chips for China's semiconductor industry has become a personal priority of President Xi Jinping.

The U.S. Commerce Department's April, 2018 7-year ban on sales of chips to ZTE, the high-tech firm in China's integrated circuit and Smartphone industry, exposed dependence on exports from Qualcomm in California. Once again the consequences of cheating played a part. False statements and missing export records showed ZTE violated a 2017 settlement by illegally using U.S. chips in telecommunications equipment shipped to Iran and North Korea. Although ZTE had settled the 2017 case by paying a $1.2 billion penalty and promising disciplinary actions against 39 employees involved in illegal conduct, ZTE took no personnel measures. To restore Qualcomm's sales to ZTE, the company agreed to install a new management team and to let the U.S. staff a compliance unit that would report to the U.S. Commerce Department for the next ten years. At first the US Congress still rejected the plan, until President Trump and Chinese President Xi reached a separate agreement. 

Violations of the original ZTE technology agreement and other cases of Chinese infringement on intellectual property rights concern the U.S. about China's interest in stealing chip research, development, and manufacturing know-how, not only how work in these areas is progressing at the zone in Donghu. With nearly 350,000 Chinese students in the United States, universities are warned to lock their labs, and legal interns from China are being kept away from sensitive antitrust cases. (See the post concerning Foxconn's intended facility in Wisconsin in the later post, "Unmask Inscrutable Chinese Intentions.") 

Sleep Deprived Test Scores

When do students in Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan take key standardized tests, such as those in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)? Of the 15-year-olds who took these tests in 65 countries, students in these four countries came out on top in the latest (Dec. 3, 2013) PISA. Could timing contribute to testing success?

     After a Friday night when high school students hang out with friends at football games and movies or stay up playing video games, my granddaughter was among classmates who had to turn up at her high school at 7:45 am on Saturday to take the standardized PSAT exam that determines National Merit Scholarships and has a big impact on which colleges students attend. A policy statement, published online by the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics on August 25, 2014, challenges the timing of such an important test.

    According to the findings of the Academy's Adolescent Sleep Working Group and Committee on Adolescence and the Council on School Health, "making middle and high schoolers start classes before 8:30 am threatens children's health, safety, and academic performance." Lack of sleep contributes to a teen's risk of traffic accidents, depression, and obesity. Since biology determines a shift in a teenager's sleep-wake cycle, these students find it difficult, if not impossible, to go to sleep before 10:30 pm. Studies show the average teenager can't even fall asleep at 11 pm. (Incidentally, on the "Dr. Oz" television show October 21, 2014, a woman who couldn't fall asleep when she went to bed at 9 pm was advised to go to bed much later when she was really tired.)

     Based on these findings, the American Academy of Pediatrics called on school districts to move start times to 8:30 am or later so that teenagers who are getting six to seven hours of sleep a night can get at least 8 1/2 to 10 hours of sleep. Those who do get enough sleep do better academically, have better standardized test scores, and enjoy a better quality of life. Nonetheless, at present, research shows only about 15% of high schools begin at 8:30 am or later and 40% start before 8 am. But Stacy Simera, the outreach director for Start School Later Inc., reports "the number of schools opening later has grown exponentially," with positive results, such as those reported by researchers at the University of Minnesota. In the eight Minnesota high schools that began using later start times, grades, attendance, and punctuality all improved, and there was a 70% reduction in teen-aged auto accidents.

    Simera acknowledges that there are critics of starting high schools later who complain that parents can't get their students off to class that late because they have to leave earlier to get themselves to work. Then, there are the problems of school bus schedules that have to change two shifts that accommodate elementary and high schools, problems scheduling after-school activities, the needs of older siblings who need to get home before the younger ones they care for, and the time when after-school jobs begin. Sumera has found, however, that despite these concerns, schools have been able to adjust.

   Even if criticisms continue to block changes in some school week day schedules, they do not apply to important tests given on weekends. It would be worthwhile to see if beginning tests at a later start time could improve the lagging performance of U.S. students on the PISA. When administering tests of the new Common Core State Standards to teenagers in the United States, it also would be worthwhile to compare performances on tests that began at various times.