Computers and politics in china

Abstract

[After reading Andrew Gordon's articcle, we asked Prof. Tad Pinkerton, who is the Director of Academic Computing at the UW-Madison, to comment on the article. Tad had just spent the month of February, 1979, as a member of a faculty delegation visiting the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The delegation, led by Chancellor Irving Shain of the UW--Madison, went to China to work out academic exchange programs between Chinese research institutes and universities and the UW--Madison. Their principal host in the PRC was the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Acadeia Sinica), but the delegation also met with officials of the Ministry of Education and the First Ministry of Machine-Building. The delegation visited more then two dozen universities and institutes in a four-city tour arranged for them by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The tour also included an in depth look at both Nanking University, designated as the UW--Madison's sister university, and Hunan University in Changsha. A delegation from the First Ministry and Hunan University visited the UW-Madison for ten days in mid-April, 1979.In addition to his comments published below, Tad also recommended for those interested in this topic, the following two articles: (1) "Computing in China, 1978", by Harvey L. Garner, in the March, 1979 IEEE publication COMPUTER; and (2) "Snapshots of Computing in China", by Donald J. Reifer, in the March, 1979 issue of DAMATION. ED]