@ehundman Did I say research article? I will publish an op-ed. And if someone at a conference publicly states ‘you should not study Chinese democracy: this is a form of cultural imperialism’ shall I ask this person to fill out a participant consent form? (rhetorical question: no)
@ehundman I guess the difference between your point of view and mine lies in the question how to address the political dimension of academia /1
@ehundman Research ethics are there to protect vulnerable subjects (eg children, prisoners, drug users etc). These protocols were initially developed in response to the completely unethical Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis /2
@ehundman The issues I talk about are normally a taboo. Why? Because of the fear to suffer reprisals from the CCP. If China was a democratic and open society academics wouldn’t have to deal with this issue /3
@ehundman To suggest that I am being unethical by showing that CCP censorship leads to pathological learning and unhealthy coping strategies among academics: I find that not particularly convincing /4
@ehundman Assuming that you are entering this debate in good faith I would concede one thing though: I need to make it clearer that I consider us all, you, me and everyone else who study mainland China as *victims* of the CCP /5
@ehundman Once we realise that oppression is domesticating (Paulo Freire) we can jointly work towards liberation. That should be the goal. But this requires people to be more honest with themselves and others /6
@ehundman But if people claim that there is no problem we cannot have this difficult conversation. And one final point: this debate needs to take place publicly, so that the different viewpoints can be scrutinized in a democratic and open-ended debate /End
@ehundman Unroll @threadreaderapp
