Center members are invited to the Shorenstein APARC 2019 - 2020 Year End Party on Friday, May 29, 2020. Please come join us to celebrate the last academic year and say farewell to this year's visitors.
Join Cyber Policy Center, June 3rd at 10am PST for The Accelerated Shift to Online Retail Under Covid-19, and Risks Associated with Underlying Dynamic Pricing Technologies with Christo Wilson at Northeastern University and Ramsi Woodcock at University of Kentucky.
The hallmarks of the Covid-19 (a shortage of masks, hand sanitizer, food, along with an acceleration of the shift to online retail) are affording retailers the opportunity to use the dynamic pricing technologies already ubiquitous in online retail in order to ration access to goods that are in temporarily short supply. In a time of crisis, dynamic pricing may run afoul of state laws prohibiting price gouging. But the practice also raises important questions about both the equity of rationing with price and the safety of doing so. Dynamic pricing online may be pricing less wealthy Americans out of online goods and services, forcing them into riskier in-person transactions at brick and mortar store locations. Fortunately, the same technologies that make dynamic pricing possible also make more equitable alternatives to rationing with price cheap and effective for online retailers.
This event is co-sponsored with the Cyber Policy Center and the Center for a New American Security.
* Please note all CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone
Seminar Recording: https://youtu.be/KaydMdIVtGc
About the Event: The United States is steadily losing ground in the race against China to pioneer the most important technologies of the 21st century. With technology a critical determinant of future military advantage, a key driver of economic prosperity, and a potent tool for the promotion of different models of governance, the stakes could not be higher. To compete, China is leveraging its formidable scale—whether measured in terms of research and development expenditures, data sets, scientists and engineers, venture capital, or the reach of its leading technology companies. The only way for the United States to tip the scale back in its favor is to deepen cooperation with allies. The global diffusion of innovation also places a premium on aligning U.S. and ally efforts to protect technology. Unless coordinated with allies, tougher U.S. investment screening and export control policies will feature major seams that Beijing can exploit.
On early June, join Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) for a unique virtual event that will feature three policy experts advancing concrete ideas for how the United States can enhance cooperation with allies around technology innovation and protection.
This webinar will be on-the-record, and include time for audience Q&A.
About the Speakers:
Anja Manuel, Stanford Research Affiliate, CNAS Adjunct Senior Fellow, Partner at Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, and author with Pav Singh of Compete, Contest and Collaborate: How to Win the Technology Race with China.
Daniel Kliman, Senior Fellow and Director, CNAS Asia-Pacific Security Program, and co-author of a recent report, Forging an Alliance Innovation Base.
Martijn Rasser, Senior Fellow, CNAS Technology and National Security Program, and lead researcher on the Technology Alliance Project
Virtual Seminar
This event is via Zoom Webinar. Please register in advance for the webinar by using the link below.
Part of APARC series COVID-19 IN ASIA: RESPONSES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE REGION
Co-sponsored by the Asia Health Policy Program and the Southeast Asia Program
Speakers (live and pre-recorded):
Dr. Dorairaj Prabhakaran, Professor of chronic disease epidemiology, Public Health Foundation of India, and Executive Director, Center for Chronic Disease Control.
Dr. Pham Quang Thai, Member of the Vietnam Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control
Dr. HAC Van Vinh, Associate Professor & former Dean of Research & International Relations, Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Dr. Richard Cash, Senior Lecturer on Global Health, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Dr. Radhika Jain, Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow, APARC, FSI, Stanford University
Dr. Arzan Tarapore, Research Scholar, APARC, FSI, Stanford University
How is the pandemic impacting health systems and society in south and southeast Asia? Numerous experts share their perspectives on topics ranging from COVID-19 challenges in Bangladesh, India and Vietnam, to geopolitical considerations for U.S. policy in the wider Indo-Pacific.
Via Zoom Webinar.
Register at https://bit.ly/2xZHser
Rapid population aging is transforming societies around the world, and the Asia-Pacific region is on the frontlines of this unprecedented demographic shift. Life expectancy in Japan, South Korea, and much of urban China has now outpaced that of the United States and other high-income countries. With this triumph of longevity, however, comes a host of health, social, and economic challenges.
Longer lifespans will necessitate working to older ages, “but extending work lives will only be feasible if the added years are healthy ones, and will only be equitable if the least advantaged also benefit from healthy aging,” writes APARC Deputy Director and Asia Health Policy Program Director Karen Eggleston in her new book, Healthy Aging in Asia. “The great blessing of longer lives dims when clouded by pain, disability, and loss of dignity.”
[Listen to our conversation with Eggelston about the book and continue reading below. To receive stories like this directly in your inbox sign up for APARC newsletters]
Shorenstein APARC · Healthy Aging In Asia | Karen Eggleston
How are health systems in Asia promoting evidence-based policies for healthy aging? What strategies have they used to prevent NCDs, screen for early disease detection, raise the quality of care, improve medication adherence, reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, and increase “value for money” in health spending?
The concise chapters in Healthy Aging in Asia examine these questions, covering multiple aspects of policy initiatives and economic research on healthy longevity in diverse Asian economies — from cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong to powerhouses such as Japan, India, and China — as they transform their health systems to support wellbeing in older age. Eggleston edited and contributed multiple chapters to this new volume, now available via Brookings Institution Press. This publication is part of APARC’s in-house series with the Brookings Institution.
Asia health policy expert Karen Eggleston’s new volume, ‘Healthy Aging in Asia,’ examines how diverse Asian economies – from Singapore and Hong Kong to Japan, India, and China – are preparing for older population age structures and transforming health systems to support patients who will live with chronic disease for decades.
Significant political barriers to implementing na- tional climate policies exist in both the US and China. Successful linkage of regional climate policies in the two countries can help overcome these impediments. Each country can be seen as willing to cooperate with the other to address the global climate challenge, which can help each national government overcome the resistance to formulating its own national climate policy.
Solving the climate challenge involves many years of sustained actions coordinated across the major emitting countries. Like any long journey, it begins with︎ a first step. Coordinating regional policies is such a step.
Applications are open for the China Scholars Program, an intensive, college-level online course on contemporary China for U.S. high school students. The China Scholars Program is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University, and is open to rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. The Fall 2020 online course will run from late August through December. Applications are due June 15, 2020.
Stanford University China Scholars Program for high school students
Fall 2020 session (late August through December)
Application period: April 25 to June 15, 2020
Accepted applicants will engage in a rigorous academic exploration of key issues in China, spanning politics, economics, social issues, culture, and the arts, with an emphasis on the relationship between the United States and China. In real-time conversations with leading scholars, experts, and diplomats from Stanford University and other institutions, participants will be exposed to the cutting edge of U.S.–China relations and scholarship. Students who complete the online course will be equipped with a rare degree of expertise about China and international relations that may have a significant impact on their choice of study and future career.
As in previous sessions of the China Scholars Program, the Fall 2020 cohort will comprise high school students from across the United States. Participants in the current cohort represent states across the nation, including California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, and Washington.
The immense diversity of student backgrounds and experiences within each online course allows for an especially rich exchange of ideas and perspectives among the young scholars—a crucial and invaluable component of the learning experience.
“Learning from Stanford’s knowledgeable East Asian studies experts remains one of my most formative educational experiences,” noted Rebecca Qiu, an alum of the program now at Tufts University. She continued, “Synchronous live lectures and lively discussion boards allowed me to learn from our professors and students alike, facilitating tremendous academic growth.”
More information on the China Scholars Program is available at http://chinascholars.org. Interested high school students can apply now at https://spicestanford.smapply.io/prog/china_scholars_program/. The deadline to apply is June 15, 2020.
To be notified when the next China Scholars Program application period opens, join our email list or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The China Scholars Program is one of several online courses for high school students offered by SPICE, Stanford University, including the Reischauer Scholars Program (on Japan), the Sejong Korea Scholars Program, the Stanford e-Japan Program (on U.S. society, offered to high school students in Japan), and the Stanford e-China Program (on technologies changing the world to high school students in China).
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What are the Chinese government’s objectives for the development of its healthcare system? How do these ambitions affect its interaction with U.S. and other foreign healthcare markets? And what policy recommendations should lawmakers consider regarding the development of China's healthcare system and its implications for U.S. national interests? These are some of the questions that APARC Deputy Director and Asia Health Policy Program Director Karen Eggleston discussed in her testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on May 7, 2020.
Watch Eggleston’s testimony (start time 23:25]
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Chaired by Dr. Robin Cleveland, the commission’s hearing, “China’s Evolving Healthcare Ecosystem: Challenges and Opportunities,” focused on China's domestic healthcare infrastructure and its use of technology in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission listened as Eggleston reviewed the strides China has made in its national health reforms and highlighted the many challenges its health system now faces. “It is in the interest of Americans and Chinese to have a strong, resilient healthcare system in China,” she said. “The United States should reemphasize scientific, evidence-based health policy and regulation, and encourage China to do so as well.”
The commission’s mandate is to investigate and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and China and to provide recommendations to Congress for legislative action.
Reforms over the past two decades, noted Eggleston, have brought China’s health system closer to a level of reliability and accessibility commensurate with the country’s dramatic economic growth. The government has already achieved its goal of providing universal health coverage and has made significant progress in many of the areas outlined in its “Healthy China 2030” blueprint, including tackling health disparities between regional and urban/rural population subgroups and building a more comprehensive and higher quality health service delivery system.
Still, China faces many daunting challenges, from dealing with COVID-19 and its aftermath to other urgent and lingering needs, such as tackling its looming demographic crisis and promoting healthy aging, addressing patient-provider tensions and trust, and changing provider payment to promote “value” rather than volume. If China is to make its investments in universal health coverage and rapid medical spending growth sustainable, said Eggleston, then it must build an infrastructure that increases health system efficiency, strengthens primary care, reforms provider payment system, and protects the most vulnerable from illness-induced poverty.
Like other countries, China’s government and private sector have utilized various technologies in response to the COVID-19 crisis, such as telemedicine, “internet-plus” healthcare, and contact tracing applications, and are deploying digital and biotechnologies in efforts focused on epidemic mentoring and on treatment and vaccine development. Eggleston noted that the response to COVID-19 “will leave an indelible mark on health policies for decades to come,” not only in terms of technology adoption but also organizational innovation. One would hope to see future prioritization in resource allocation and renewed investment in the diagnosis and treatment of health system weaknesses, she added.
In all our policies and interactions, Eggleston concluded her testimony, we should remember that China is large and diverse, that local government agencies are those that make many important decisions in health policies as in other policies, and that the “Chinese people” are not synonymous with any given leader. “Avoid politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic and other health and humanitarian issues,” she noted. “In other geopolitical considerations in bilateral US-China relations, uphold U.S. interests while encouraging the PRC to be active as a globally responsible stakeholder.”
The U.S. government should encourage China and its scientists and firms to work collaboratively with multilateral efforts to prevent and control future pandemics, she argued. Specific recommended actions include supporting efforts to strengthen primary care and population health interventions with proven cost-effectiveness; sharing experiences with regional, community-based efforts to address the social determinants of health and promote multisector policies for healthy aging; encouraging public-private collaborative governance arrangements to strengthen the health sector in China; promoting transparent peer review of research and international collaboration between Chinese and American scientists, medical educators, health systems researchers, and technology developers; and collaborating with Chinese counterparts to address regional issues of population health importance, such as health problems in the DPRK and integration of public health priorities into China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Asia health policy expert Karen Eggleston provides testimony for a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing on China's domestic healthcare infrastructure and the use of technology in its healthcare system amid COVID-19.
Desk, examination, or review copies can be requested through Stanford University Press.
The following is Part 1 of a two-article series. For Part 2, please go here.
Stanford e-Oita is an online course for high school students throughout Oita Prefecture in the southwestern island of Kyushu, Japan, that is sponsored by the Oita Prefectural Government. Launched in fall 2019, it is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) in collaboration with the Oita Prefectural Board of Education. SPICE is grateful to Oita Prefectural Governor Katsusada Hirose whose vision made this course possible.
Social media posts, video-conference invites, and webinar notifications flood our inboxes ever since COVID-19 drove traditional classroom instruction online. Distance learning has gone mainstream.
While distance learning may never replace traditional classroom instruction, it’s certainly transforming how we teach, learn, and behave. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, 30 Stanford e-Oita students in Japan—on the other end of my virtual classroom—showed me what distance learning can offer: a greater appreciation of where we live, renewed cross-cultural perspectives, and a chance to enhance one’s communication skills in a foreign language without a textbook, classroom, or a trip overseas.
Students from 15 high schools throughout Oita Prefecture—from the capital city of Oita to the tiny island of Hotojima—logged onto their laptops, tablets, and smart phones on Saturday mornings for my bi-weekly distance learning class. It’s a course offered to highly motivated students with a certain proficiency in English. They could attend a class as if they were in Palo Alto without ever having to leave their tatami-mat living rooms.
Stanford e-Oita focuses on three areas: U.S.–Japan relations, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), and entrepreneurship. These are the collective objectives of SPICE, the Oita Prefectural Board of Education, and Oita’s Governor Hirose. For six months, I explored their intersections with my students.
I designed a course curriculum that engages students to think critically about global issues, empowers them to take pride in their hometowns, and encourages them to give back to their communities. We took what’s happening in the world and made it relevant to their daily lives in Oita. Students took this a step further by exploring issues that were personally meaningful.
Students worked individually and collaboratively through guided group discussions, submitted written assignments, developed research projects, watched documentary films, and prepared multi-media slideshows as part of their final presentations—all in English. I also created virtual experiential learning opportunities for students by introducing them to guest speakers via Zoom. In the pre-COVID-19 days, I took students along with me on fieldtrips to National Historic Sites in Seattle’s International District and visited social activists on Vashon Island, Washington.
Stanford e-Oita is taught in English, but it is not an English language course. I offer my students a chance to become confident in English, competent in critical thinking, and fluent in accessing the technologies of a digital classroom. We use online platforms like Zoom and Canvas and take advantage of discussion boards, breakout sessions, and other digital tools which are not often used in Japanese schools.
In order to ensure access and equity, students who did not have access to a computer or Wifi were able to return to their schools on Saturday mornings to take the class in the computer labs. Most students worked on tablets (some used smartphones) and grew accustomed to the online format within a few weeks. For the most part, e-Oita students were excited and open to technology enabled learning. One student noted, “For me, using Zoom in this new style of class is really refreshing. Students are scattered all over Oita and you’re in America but we’re all communicating through my tablet. It’s so cool!”
Getting Japanese students on board Stanford’s rigorous distance learning program, in a foreign language, was a challenge at first. In fact, the learning curve was steep for all of us. I taught my students the word “troubleshoot” early on and walked them through online setting changes to video presentation uploads.
Here are some lessons learned:
Distance learning provides learning opportunities for students in less accessible communities—in rural towns or islands—where traditional classrooms are unable to serve.
Distance learning allows students to re-invent themselves with a new audience, with people you have never met.
Distance learning can create an informality that breaks down the wall between teachers and students and makes their relationship less hierarchical. This is a new experience for students from Japan.
Distance learning allows instructors to invite speakers whose participation is not limited by geography, departmental budgets, disabilities, or availability of a considerable amount of time. All they need is a quiet corner, a laptop with Wifi, and a time commitment of 30 minutes to an hour.
Section Manager Hironori Sano and Teachers’ Consultant Keisuke Toyoda of the Global Education Acceleration Project Team (High School Education Division) of the Oita Prefectural Board of Education, reflected, “The most amazing thing is seeing how our students developed through the program. They have acquired five important skills: (1) the ability to cooperate with people around them; (2) the ability to state their ideas; (3) knowledge of Japan and Oita; (4) the confidence to communicate in English; and (5) the confidence to make a contribution in the world.”
Kasumi Yamashita
In part two of this series, I will focus on Stanford e-Oita’s priorities (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals), guest speakers, final student presentations, and assessment.
SPICE also offers online courses to U.S. high school students on Japan (Reischauer Scholars Program), China (China Scholars Program), and Korea (Sejong Korea Scholars Program), and online courses to Chinese high school students on the United States (Stanford e-China Program) and to Japanese high school students on the United States and U.S.–Japan relations (Stanford e-Japan).
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