Diploma serves diplomacy: China’s ‘donor logic’ in educational aid

"China’s engagement in Africa is an increasingly popular topic in the 21st century. However, not much attention has been paid in the field of education and little evidence can be seen in what actually happens on the ground. This article aims to explore China’s educational aid to Africa, from both textual and fieldwork sources. It will focus on three parts: first, the existing recognition of Chinese distinctions in foreign aid and China’s donor logic based on “win-win” strategies; second, an argument that China’s donor logic in educational aid might be informed by producing soft power through “public diplomacy”; third, a discussion of people’s perception collected in Tanzania, including voices from officials and returning African students. The article will take China’s main educational approach, the Government Scholarship Scheme as an example, and look at how this educational practice has been processed in a “diplomatic” way. It is concluded that China’s educational aid and its features in practice, based upon diplomatic policies and China’s distinctive donor logic of foreign aid, is serving bilateral relations rather than orthodox aid relations. If quality transformation and communication can be maintained in the Chinese universities, education would contribute to a lasting and cooperative relationship between China and Africa. It may add more complexities to “soft power” within broader conceptions under the contemporary global political economy.

Teaching to fish’ rather than ‘giving a fish’: Is China contributing to the global sustainable futures?

"‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’. This proverb now becomes the slogan of China’s international aid. This paper is based on my previous empirical studies on China's 'donor logic' of aid. Rather than looking at the motives of Chinese aid and how it is challenging the Western ideas, this paper focuses on policy discourse and tries to seek the recent trends and knowledge transformations of China’s international cooperation of education. Through examining China’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) pledges historically and recent policy documents, three key trends are firstly discussed- the trend of one-to-one top university cooperation, cooperation in research projects, academic publications and think tanks; and the enhancement in the cooperation on technical and vocational education and training at tertiary level. The paper then looks at 'what' are transferred through the above approaches. These include knowledge on developing university subjects that are key to economic growth; knowledge on developing applied research and tertiary vocational education; and knowledge of China’s understandings and experience of development. The paper argues that China has been continuously progressing on the modality and quality of the educational cooperation. Chinese approaches of teaching ‘how to develop’ based on its own experience may help strengthen the independence of developing countries and build win-win partnerships for long term development.

China’s aid modalities of human resource development in Africa and an exploration in Tanzania: Differences and recognitions

This paper talks about the modalities of Chinese human resource development (HRD) support to Africa, and the case of Tanzania. Since the hold of FOCAC from the new century, China has engaged a lot in the field of student scholarship, short term training, school building, Confucius Institute and university cooperation in Africa. The fieldwork in Tanzania also found the practice evidence of most of these approaches. The practice featured in some ways which are quite different from the Western aid modalities- it is not professional aid; it is not keen on direct budget; and there is a trend of one-to-one institutional cooperation. Although Tanzanian people in the field interviews are not quite interested in talking and comparing about those differences, they did show a willing to know and experience China’s education and training based on their different feeling towards China. It is hard to put this Chinese aid into any emerged aid model, which may motivate people to think wider about the meaning of education in the current global political economy

Early potential metabolic biomarkers of primary postpartum haemorrhage based on serum metabolomics

Objectives: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal death, accounting for 1/4 of maternal deaths worldwide. Determining sensitive biomarkers in the peripheral blood to identify postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is essential for the early diagnosis and management of PPH. The purpose of this study is to identify predictive serum metabolic biomarkers of PPH. Thirty healthy pregnant women and 30 cases of postpartum hemorrhage were studied for our research. Material and methods: The serum metabolites of all pregnant were detected by liquid chromatography-quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOFMS) and the corresponding biomarkers were identified. Results: 34 significantly altered metabolites in PPH-pre-group were identified. They were mainly involved in fatty acid, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. Conclusions: The LysoPCs, PCs, PGs, PIs were effective biomarkers for identifying PPH. The disturbed signaling pathways, mTOR signaling, acute phase response signaling, AMPK signaling and eNOS signaling pathways might be related to the etiopathogenesis of PPH. Our study provided a valuable attempt to screen early diagnostic markers of PPH and to further understand its pathogenesis

Re-thinking International Students' Voice in South-South Cooperation in Higher Education 关于发展中国家留学生在华学习体验的反思: An International Development Perspective 国际发展的视角

This article provides an initial reflection based on a recent qualitative study on China’s higher education and scholarship provision to international students from developing countries. The empirical data collected from focus groups reveal two emerging aspects of students’ overall experience: those of equality and sustainability. These two features fundamentally reflect China’s distinctiveness in its higher education provision in South-South Cooperation and its status in contemporary global political economy.文章从国际发展视角对一项近期进行的质性研究进行了阶段性的反思。该研究对获得中国奖学金的发展中国家在华留学生进行了访谈。初步研究结果将在华留学这个高等教育范畴内的实践和中国在南南合作中所做的贡献联系起来。本文旨在揭示留学生体验的两点鲜明特征，即在华留学的“平等性”和“可持续性”。而这两点特征也在根本上体现了中国提供的高等教育的特殊性和中国在当前国际政治经济中的角色和地位

Higher education beyond SDG 4: China’s scholarship provision in the Global South

In international development of education, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 monitors the scholarships offered by Western donors to developing countries. This paper, based on a qualitative study with 43 students from 26 developing countries, examined the foreign students’ perceptions of Chinese scholarships. By looking at students’ scholarship application, university experience and post-study plans, the findings revealed a centralised multi-level scholarship system, in particular attracting post-graduate students. The language of instruction in both Chinese and English, knowledge in shared development contexts and the perceived good value for future career have a combined effect to the students’ experience. In considering education as a cultural political economic ensemble in the global context, the paper concluded that China’s scholarship and higher education practice, serving the country’s soft power and representing South-South Cooperation, contributed to the global education targets from both quantity and quality dimensions but could step further towards education for social and global justice

miRNA-223 expression in patient-derived eutopic and ectopic endometrial stromal cells and its effect on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in endometriosis

Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the expression of microRNA-223 (miRNA-223) in patient-derived eutopic and ectopic endometrial stromal cells (SCs). Given the fact that miRNA-223 was previously shown to be upregulated in these cells and that this upregulation has been linked to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during endometriosis, this study aimed to further explore the expression of miRNA-223, its effect in endometriosis, and the mechanisms underlying its effects. Methods: Endometrial tissue was collected from 26 patients with endometriosis and 14 patients with hysteromyoma (control group). Primary endometrial SCs were isolated and cultured from several endometrial samples and miRNA-223 expression was evaluated using qRT-PCR. Cells were then transfected with a miRNA-223 overexpression lentiviral vector (sh-miR-223 cells) or an empty control (sh-NC cells) and then used to monitor the effects of miRNA-223 on the expression of several EMT-associated proteins, including N-cadherin, vimentin, and Slug, using western blot. Cellular migration, invasion, and proliferation were then evaluated using a wound healing, Transwell, and CCK-8 assay, respectively. Flow cytometry was used to detect apoptosis. Results: There was a significant decrease in the expression of miRNA-223 in both eutopic and ectopic endometrial SCs (p < 0.05) whereas upregulation of miRNA-223 inhibited the expression of EMT-related molecules and reduced cell migration, invasion, and proliferation. High levels of miRNA-223 also promoted apoptosis. Conclusion: miRNA-223 expression decreased in endometrial SCs from endometriosis patients, which may facilitate the differential regulation of EMT during endometriosis. Clinical Trial registration number: SWYX2020-211

Re-Expression of AKAP12 Inhibits Progression and Metastasis Potential of Colorectal Carcinoma In Vivo and In Vitro

Background: AKAP12/Gravin (A kinase anchor protein 12) is one of the A-kinase scaffold proteins and a potential tumor suppressor gene in human primary cancers. Our recent study demonstrated the highly recurrent loss of AKAP12 in colorectal cancer and AKAP12 reexpression inhibited proliferation and anchorage-independent growth in colorectal cancer cells, implicating AKAP12 in colorectal cancer pathogenesis. Methods: To evaluate the effect of this gene on the progression and metastasis of colorectal cancer, we examined the impact of overexpressing AKAP12 in the AKAP12-negative human colorectal cancer cell line LoVo, the single clone (LoVo-AKAP12) compared to mock-transfected cells (LoVo-CON). Results: pCMV6-AKAP12-mediated AKAP12 re-expression induced apoptosis (3 % to 12.7%, p,0.01), migration (89.667.5 cells to 31.064.1 cells, p,0.01) and invasion (82.765.2 cells to 24.763.3 cells, p,0.01) of LoVo cells in vitro compared to control cells. Nude mice injected with LoVo-AKAP12 cells had both significantly reduced tumor volume (p,0.01) and increased apoptosis compared to mice given AKAP12-CON. The quantitative human-specific Alu PCR analysis showed overexpression of AKAP12 suppressed the number of intravasated cells in vivo (p,0.01). Conclusion: These results demonstrate that AKAP12 may play an important role in tumor growth suppression and the survival of human colorectal cancer