China needs — no, it deserves — its own Harvard (and Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, and so on)

"Chairs in Chinese Studies — both in China and the West — have become extremely valuable assets, as political as the highest political offices, and have become monopolized by patriarchs and their acolytes."

Elite universities like Harvard in the United States are a growing lure for well-heeled Chinese students. The attraction to the Ivy League is enhanced by high-profile donations from mainland businesspeople and a two-way traffic in visiting lectures by professors. The downside of sending top young scholars to the West, writes Thorsten Pattberg, is that China’s own elite universities lose out on some of the best talent. [READ AT GLOBAL ASIA (Online-Registration required)]

PATTBERG: Dangers in China's Confucianism nostalgia

SCHOLARS in China say President Xi Jinping's crackdowns on corruption and his concept of "the Chinese dream" are nods to the Confucian values believed to underpin an ideal society. Critics say that the sage's teachings praise patriarchy, nepotism, abuse of officialdom and moral dictatorship. The Confucian ideal of a government run by supreme human beings - the junzi - is possibly the greatest corruption of all. READ FULL TEXT AT ASIA TIMES.