Political tensions should never be a barricade to intl cooperation amid pandemic: foreign talents in Nanjing

By Xu Keyue in Nanjing Source: Global Times Published: 2020/12/3 23:49:04

Michael Carmichael, a US top surgeon, who works full time at Nanjing First Hospital, accepts an interview online. Photo: Xu Keyue/GT


 Several foreigners from the US, Australia and the UK, who work and live in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province told the Global Times they want to see expanded international cooperation in technology, science, medicine and the environment, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nanjing ranked seventh on the 2019 list of “Most Attractive Chinese city for foreign Talents” released by the Foreign Talent Research Center of Ministry of Science and Technology earlier last month.  It was 11th last year. 

This Global Times reporter interviewed several foreign senior expats in Nanjing last week. They expressed satisfaction with life in this ancient southern Chinese city of 9 million people, and hope political tensions between China and the US and Australia to ease. 

Dr Michael Carmichael, a top US surgeon, who works full time at Nanjing First Hospital but is staying in the US due to the COVID-19 pandemic, told the Global Times that “nothing should hinder medical cooperation,” noting that enhanced medical cooperation would help warm China-US relations.

Carmichael, a world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon, became the first full-time foreign doctor in Jiangsu when he accepted his post at the Nanjing First Hospital in February 2018. 

Last year he has won the Chinese Government Friendship Award which is the top honor for foreign talents in China. With his help and international cooperation,more than 2,000 open heart surgeries were performed at Nanjing First Hospital with a success rate of over 98 percent, on a par with heart hospitals in the US or Europe.

Cardiovascular surgeon Dr Chen Xin, Vice President of Nanjing First Hospital, said several foreign doctors are working in Nanjing, and they didn’t come across many cultural barriers and have built a deep friendship with their local colleagues.  

Carmichael said deepening medical cooperation and strengthening exchanges are key in tackling the global public health emergency.

Although China-US ties are frosty and some exchanges between the two countries have been restricted, medicine has no boundaries and global medical collaboration should never be barricaded by any political issue, Carmichael said. Medical cooperation can set an example for international cooperation and help warm the two major powers’ relations, he said.

American-Irish Peter Tensen is the founder of the UK-based Global Technology Innovation Partnership and CEO of Nanjing Tensen International Technology Transfer Center.

He hailed China’s huge potential in artificial intelligence (AI) and low-carbon technology in the competitive global arena. 

Tensen noted that some in the US feel threatened by China’s advances in some technology areas like AI. China has an opportunity to take the lead role in areas like clean technology and AI applications in health care, which can help build a good image in the world, he said. 

China will likely have an opening after Joe Biden takes office to rebuild the China-US relationship on more positive terms by focusing on common global challenges like tackling climate change, Tensen said. 

The current US administration has put pressure on the UK to decouple from Chinese technology companies, Tensen said. 

He noted that he was looking forward to the new administration and believes Biden’s team will be more “rational” and less “short-sighted.” 

Tensen hopes Trump’s “America First” is soon replaced by “Planet First” policies. 

“The kind of decoupling with China which the US has been promoting is not in either side’s strategic interest,” he said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic makes deeper international cooperation more vital than ever.

American-Australian physicist Craig Roberts, who joined the faculty of the School of Physics at Nanjing University in September 2019, where he is also Head of the Institute for Nonperturbative Physics, told the Global Times that many conflicts have been caused by the US with many other countries. Interactions between China and the US were greatly harmed by the current US administration and the Australian government appears to have chosen to follow the US’ lead.

However, he pointed out that basic science is open and the chances for science and technology growth and innovation in China remains strong. 

“Imposing borders against basic research cannot be beneficial to anybody,” he noted.

The Global Times also interviewed with Laurence Steedman McLellan, Director of Nanjing International School, who is from Scotland.

McLellan devoted himself to bridging cultural exchanges for his students from overseas, most of whom are children of foreign talents working and living in Nanjing.

The school launched Discover China Week to broaden the students’ experiences and knowledge of China.

Through the program, students can get more engaged with China in terms of regional arts, history, culture, and its people, McLellan said. He called the students “friendship ambassador candidates” who could contribute to the further international cooperation as adults.

“I don't want the school to be an island of foreign students,” McLellan added.



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