First Scholar from China at Hebrew University is Doing Research at Truman Institute

The first scholar from the People’s Republic of China to engage in research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is currently in residence at the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.

He is Dr. Guocang Huan, a specialist in international relations, who has spent the past seven years studying in the U.S. His summer as a visiting research fellow at the Truman institute will be spent working on Israeli policy regarding the peace process and on options for the development of China-Israel relations.

Huan said that while he is not currently affiliated with any Chinese government institutions, he knows that his published work has been read and is well thought of in government circles there. Huan added that he sees “very limited movement” towards development of relations between Israel and China, but the outlook is promising.

Huan, who is from Shanghai, studied at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing before leaving there seven years ago to study in the United States. Although he has no high school certificate nor a B.A., he has earned in the past seven years an M.A. at the University of Denver in international economics, an M.A. at Columbia University in comparative politics, and a Ph.D. in international relations at Princeton University.

In addition, he has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., as a John Olin Fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States.

Huan commented that despite the lack of formal Chinese-Israel relations, there has long been interest in intellectual circles in China about Jewish culture. People in these circles also are aware of the Holocaust and do have sympathy for the victims, Huan claimed. As for himself, Huan said he sees certain similarities between Jewish and Chinese culture. He added that he is interested in the problems of the Middle East as part of his overall interest in international relations.