Research Proposal for Fulbright Fellowship

As a biology student, I have been taught that scientific method is the most reliable process for understanding the natural world. As an environmentalist, I have learned that science is by no means a value-neutral activity. When science is defined simply as “observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena,” (1) it is clear these activities have likely taken place in a wide variety of cultures throughout human history. What remains less clear are the ways and extent to which culture shapes our evolving conceptions of science. If science is to be relied upon as a tool for achieving environmental sustainability, it is imperative that we explore the tension between science as a source of knowledge versus science as a social construct deeply situated within a particular culture.


As someone trained in a particular scientific tradition, I can learn much about the nature of science by viewing it through another lens. Through a combination of independent research and personal interactions which take me outside of my cultural context, I hope to explore the science-culture symbiosis and discern its implications for addressing modern environmental crises. This examination will better prepare me for my future as an educator, scientist, and activist, and the knowledge gained will become increasingly important as human societies are forced to renegotiate their relationship with the biosphere.


India is an ideal setting for this inquiry because of its non-Western influences and its escalating importance in global markets and international scientific communities. While little non-Indian scholarship exists on the history of science and technology in India as compared with other parts of Asia, the Indian subcontinent has a long-standing tradition of scientific/technological development and cultural exchange. Science developed in India prior to significant contact with the West, and India made significant contributions to the early development of Western sciences. India is also home to diverse philosophical traditions, including long-standing Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as one of the most sizeable Muslim populations in the world. With its blending of diverse philosophical customs and significant integration of Western epistemology, India offers unique opportunities to explore the tension between modernization and Westernization in a scientific context and to approach the question of how science is influenced by cultural contexts.


The initial stages of my study, which are already underway, involve cultivating a deeper historical understanding of how, and why, science developed in India. An exploration of science history offers important insights into how people’s conceptions of science have changed over time. I want to comprehend how indigenous scientific traditions have compared with Western notions of science and whether contemporary scientists view science as a “universalizing force.” More specifically, I want to understand these individuals’ awareness of science history and philosophy in their respective contexts, their interactions with international scientific communities, and their perspectives on the roles of science and technology in achieving environmental sustainability. I intend to gain these insights through independent research, but also more directly through observation and interviews with science practitioners, as well as science educators and students.


An increased understanding of Indian history, culture, and popular conceptions of science should provide powerful insights into how bio-ethical concerns are both defined and negotiated within India’s societal discourse. While there are numerous contemporary bio-ethical case studies which merit investigation, I have chosen Indian responses to environmental concerns as my primary focus. This approach builds upon my previous research and organizing experiences while offering new insights on the pursuit of environmental sustainability. While India has demonstrated some mid-range successes in this pursuit, (2) it will continue to face many challenges along the way. These challenges include balancing environmental concerns with development needs, as well as overcoming the environmental and social consequences of rapid population growth and industrialization. Through observation and interviews with participants in Indian environmental advocacy organizations, I will gain broader perspectives on the roles science and technology play in both ameliorating and exacerbating environmental crises. In particular I am interested in Indian approaches to defining sustainability and efforts to develop indicators of sustainability at the local, regional, and national levels. In the United States and elsewhere, quantitative indicators are increasingly being relied upon to help guide individuals and policy-makers in assessing the efficacy of their decisions. These indicators incorporate social as well as environmental measurements and therefore serve as an important nexus between science and values.


I have already identified and corresponded with several potential research partners in India. Taken together, these contacts would provide me with access to a wide range of Indian society and hence a significant spectrum of opinion with regard to issues of science, technology, and sustainability. I would like to affiliate with the Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP) at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The CSSP is a premier Indian research center which focuses on many issues germane to my interests. Its faculty members specialize in important areas such as development and globalization, science and the environment, and international scientific communities. The CSSP is also well-situated within a university that has a strong emphasis on the physical sciences, and within New Delhi, the home of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). INSA provides scientific advice to Indian governments and serves as a national and international scientific forum. The Academy also strives to “maintain liaison between science and humanities” and publishes the Indian Journal of History of Science. I would also like to examine the work of the Indian Space Research Organization’s Science Education Program, which aims to “educate young people around the proliferation of science and importance of scientific method.” Additionally, I have corresponded with a potential NGO partner—the Barefoot College network. The Barefoot College utilizes over twenty informal campuses throughout the country to address pressing local development needs such as clean water, energy, and women’s rights, and employs the concept of appropriate technology (3) in its sustainable development efforts.


It is vital that we examine the question of science’s universality in light of international dialogue concerning development and sustainability. Can we presume that all nations approach science and sustainability with the same assumptions and insights? Although the U.S. prides itself on being at the forefront of scientific innovation, we have much to gain from a citizenry which employs a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan understanding of how science operates. As citizens in a global society with finite resources, we have much to lose by failing to secure environmental sustainability. Through an exploration of science which connects these concerns, I believe I can yield valuable research outcomes in the nine month period (August-April) offered by the Fulbright’s India program. These outcomes will better prepare me for a life of public service and better prepare our nation for the uncertain future ahead.

(1) The American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd edition.
(2) Yale University’s most recent Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) ranks India 101 out of the 146 nations examined, and gives India an ESI score of 45.2 compared with its “peer group” ESI score of 46.7. The ESI is one of several attempts to formulate quantitative indicators that assess nations’ efforts at achieving environmental sustainability.
(3) Appropriate technology utilizes ecological as well as social criteria to design technological solutions fitting the context in which they are utilized.

Personal Statement for Fulbright Fellowship

As one of my favorite folk singers, Utah Phillips, likes to remind us, “the past didn’t go anywhere.” Yet an interest in the past is a relatively recent development in my life. When I was a youngster I viewed history as boring and mostly irrelevant, and my own past was something I preferred not to dwell on. Unlike many of the kids from my neighborhood, I escaped my past, or so I thought. I found a one-way ticket out of town as soon as I was able to and swore I would never look back. I thought I had left the past behind and could magically transform into a completely new life, a completely new me. I had a lot to learn.

The Job Corps offered me a way out of my home town and taught me there were many kids like me and some who had it far worse. I watched one young person after another slip back into the self-destructive patterns they had been taught their entire lives, but I also learned that not every older person harbored the same disdain and distrust to which I had grown accustomed. I could scarcely comprehend why, but there were people who seemed genuinely interested in being a positive force in our lives and believed we could make something of ourselves if only we were offered a real opportunity. Perhaps most importantly, my time in the Job Corps taught me that people can claim some degree of power over their lives if they put their collective will to the task. It seems in retrospect that lesson was much more important than I realized at the time. Once people begin to perceive a sense of agency over their lives the feeling can become addictive; for me it meant the beginnings of an improved self-assessment and a commitment to struggle against oppression which has continued to shape both my understanding of my origins and my ongoing experiences.

Consequently, the environmental and social justice struggles I have invested so much of myself in and my aspirations to become an educator and work closely with young folks who share my class background are a direct result of my lived experiences and evolving self-perception. In the nine years since leaving the Job Corps, and especially during my time at Berea College, I have learned that not only do I not have to leave the past behind, but my history is an integral part of who I am, how I see the world, and what I have to offer. As a mentor and close friend once told me, “the fact that your mom was a waitress is not parenthetical.”

Just as personal discovery can shed new light on one’s origin, the study of history also offers fresh perspectives on unexamined social dogma. The history many science students receive, for instance, under-emphasizes how scientific communities operate and the often circuitous path knowledge takes to arrive at its present position. As a result, students fail to understand the myriad ways ideology is injected into scientific processes and take for granted the supposed objectivity of scientific knowledge. As I survey the world unfolding around me, I am constantly reminded of dystopian novels such as Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World in which science was used to enslave rather than to liberate. I am increasingly concerned that unless we cultivate a deeper understanding of how science operates, scientific progress is unlikely to bring us any closer to the sort of world we would like to inhabit and may do the opposite.

These days I am growing increasingly enamored with the past. Whether it is the sense of lasting camaraderie which results from exchanging personal stories with other working class young folks or the use of historical research as a means of illuminating the nature of science, I find that history makes the present come alive in ways I never knew it could. Consequently, I am becoming a bit of an exorcist—dragging long-hidden and at times malevolent apparitions into the light of day and forcing them to justify their existence or be banished. I am learning that our past is comprised of more than painful secrets which must be kept hidden; rather, it is an opportunity to let down our defenses and see the world, and one another, with new eyes.

Personal Statement for Watson Fellowship

“I will save the world from death, disease, and war. I will be the best scientist that ever lived. I will discover, design, and make things that will help mankind. I will help conserve water, electricity, and other things that are important to mankind. I will do all of this when I grow up...”

Jason Fults, age 9, “I Can, I Will” Essay Contest

June 12, 2005, 6:30am; Wombarra, Australia. Why Travel?

It is nearly dawn, my first morning back beneath the shadow of the Illawarra escarpment, but I have been awake for hours; quietly anticipating the moment I could slip out of bed and back onto these once-familiar shores, climb atop this rock on the other side of the planet and sing the Sun into waking. I love these spaces in between—between day and night, between sleep and waking, between being here and where I came from. It is in these spaces insight is revealed. I suppose the longing for insight is why I left home again—to remove myself from a familiar context, to peel away some layers and discover what lies beneath.

Admittedly I surprised even myself with this trip. The past three years working as a full-time organizer for the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) have been among the most unsettled of my life. At times I lived on the road, visiting one campus after another, one training, one conference after another—it was dizzying. No one could have blamed me for wanting to just stay put for awhile, to be comfortable and at home. Yet the sense that something important is happening inside of me is what drove me here—to be with myself again in this place I visited four years ago, to juxtapose my own inner landscape with the ever-changing, ever-constant sea. The insight will come, I am certain, there are many weeks ahead. For this moment though, calm is settling in, the ocean hums, the Sun awakens, I am here.

June 29, 2005; Sydney, Australia. My story.

Thirty years old—how did that happen? I was in the sixth grade when my mom—a waitress, two kids, recently divorced—turned thirty. I remember that year vividly; the year circumstances compelled us to move away from what had passed for stability—four years living under the same roof. Now we inhabited a duplex just on the outskirts of “The Highlands” in Lakeland, Florida, the so-called “rich” part of town. The banal, upper-class existence we witnessed there was a stark contrast to the working-class environs I had always known and I became aware of being “underprivileged” for perhaps the first time. School proved an inhospitable social environment for kids from my side of the tracks so I got my first job and began pursuing my own budding curiosities.

By age seventeen I was working full-time and nearly quit high school, but also began to develop a nascent political awareness, albeit mostly supplanted by the competing, self-destructive pursuits typical of many working-class adolescent males. When I wasn’t occupied by a soul-deadening job, I spent time at the library looking for some way out which I hoped might be found on a dusty, neglected bookshelf. By age twenty I had begun to find my own ways out. Short, cautious steps at first, like visiting friends who had successfully escaped our home town; then bolder moves: my first protest in D.C., hitchhiking trips cross-country, and joining the Job Corps—which brought me, indirectly, to the steps of Berea College.

What I initially intended to be a five-year degree at Berea was “interrupted” by a few years spent as a full-time grassroots organizer with SEAC. Unlike most of my classmates who seemed intent on plowing through their college experience as quickly as possible, I always felt that life experience supplemented rather than detracted from what we were learning in the classroom. My formal education changed my approach to political work, just as my evolving political analysis altered my conception of what it means to be educated. In retrospect it seems several lifetimes have passed between me and the kid who got dropped off by the Greyhound bus in Berea, Kentucky that drizzling February morning. No experience had yet stretched me, had yet nourished me the way Berea has. I co-discovered aspects of myself I never knew existed and learned the responsibilities that are entailed in being part of a community. At the same time, it becomes more apparent with each passing day that my tenure at SEAC changed how I experience the classroom. As if offering me a final opportunity to contemplate these experiences, the College has enabled me to return to Australia for an incredible internship with AID/WATCH and all that comes with it; reuniting with old friends and discovering entirely new aspects of this place, and sitting here sipping hot chocolate on the shore of Sydney Harbor, contemplating thirty years of life on this planet.

August 8, 2005; in bed. Asking the right questions.

Relaxing after a birthday party for one of my AID/WATCH co-workers which kept me out way too late. During a more lucid moment in the evening I had a good yarn with Tim—my internship supervisor—about our childhoods, becoming politicized, and the importance of asking good questions. One of AID/WATCH’s goals is to uncover and challenge assumptions embedded in economic and development ideologies. They assess how Australia’s foreign aid and trade policies affect the social and ecological environments of others. I discovered AID/WATCH four years ago when I last visited Australia and have been interested in the sorts of questions they were asking ever since. This lust for questioning must be the common thread drawing me both to scientists and to rabble-rousers. Different questions, different methodologies, but at the heart of both groups lies a passionate desire to get to the bottom of things.

As a student researcher in the Department of Energy’s Global Change Education Program I worked with top-notch scientists to predict how climatic change might affect deciduous forests. The prognosis was grim and this research fueled my efforts within SEAC to help build a youth movement for clean energy. While at SEAC and during my time with the Madison County Action Team in Berea we questioned dangerous assumptions embedded in U.S. energy policy and campaigned for changes at the local, national, and global levels. My internship with the Chemical Weapons Working Group—where we challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s inadequate regulation of the carcinogen dioxin—instilled in me the importance of both using science as a tool for change and understanding how scientific and technological institutions function. These are lessons I will retain for the rest of my life and tools which I will continue to hone.

Everywhere I have been people look to the experts for direction—the doctors, the economists, the engineers. We often fail to recognize that while these experts may know much about a particular subject, they also come to the conversation with their own interests, ignorance, and ideological commitments. Further, many of the problems we look to experts to solve are not fundamentally technical in nature. AID/WATCH points out, for instance, that the problems faced by so many people in the developing world cannot be solved solely by the cadre of technicians Australia sends to their rescue, but instead demand a fundamental reordering of the power dynamics existing between the rich and the poor. Similarly, while my enthusiasm for the possibilities science offers remains high, my understanding of science’s role in society has changed dramatically. As I survey the world unfolding around me I am constantly reminded of dystopic novels such as Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World in which science is used to enslave rather than to liberate. I am increasingly concerned that unless we get a better grip on relationships between science and culture, between the questions and the questioners, scientific progress is unlikely to bring us any closer to the sort of world we would like to inhabit and may do the opposite.

August 30, 2005; Land O’ Lakes, Florida. Looking ahead.

Back in the northern hemisphere and it feels wonderful to be home. I am readjusting to a new time zone and catching up with a nephew who turned two and a sister who started high school while I was away. Hardly anyone from my large family has ever left the southern U.S. They have a hard time understanding my yearning to “see the world,” as they say, but enjoy the travel stories, photos, and new recipes I always bring home. Throughout my stay my mind has wandered ceaselessly and I cannot stop thinking about graduation and my excitingly uncertain future.

My arrival at Berea was like opening a hidden door in a tiny apartment and realizing I had occupied but one room of a vast mansion all my life. My forays into public citizenship have been equally revelatory. It now appears obvious to me that my relationship with science has changed dramatically, yet before I rush off to graduate school I need to spend some time figuring out what those changes mean. Similarly, the perpetual motion of political work too often leaves little time for reflection. My commitment to the movement remains rock-solid yet I feel I have much more work to do understanding the complexities the future offers and figuring out how I can most effectively intervene in that future. What I most want at this moment is the opportunity to step back, take in the grand view of a yet unexplored physical and intellectual terrain, and further discern what I and the world can make of each other. This opportunity to cultivate one’s vision and to learn from the visions of others is exactly what a Watson fellowship offers.

I am eager to step into places significantly unlike my own to interact with other individuals engaged in the pursuit of scientific knowledge and environmental sustainability. I want to better comprehend how they perceive their work and what our exchanges tell us about the sort of future we can create. I also want to better arm myself for what will certainly be an interesting future whatever its outcome. I believe I have something to contribute to making this world a better place, and I think the nine year-old who set me off on this journey, his optimism and naiveté abounding, might still recognize something of himself if we could somehow meet again. There is a wide, old world awaiting and many important questions still in need of asking. I think this will be a fruitful year.

Watson Fellowship proposal

Ti-Yong (1): Perceptions of Science and Nature beyond the West


As a biology student I have been taught that scientific method is the most reliable process for understanding the natural world. As an environmentalist I have learned that science is by no means a value-neutral activity. When science is defined simply as “observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena (2),” it is clear these activities have likely taken place in a wide variety of cultures throughout human history. What remains less clear are the ways and extent to which culture shapes our evolving conceptions of science. If science is to be relied upon as a tool for achieving environmental sustainability, it is imperative that we explore the tension between science as a source of knowledge versus science as a social construct deeply situated within a particular culture.


As someone trained in a particular scientific tradition, I can learn much about the nature of science by viewing it through another lens. Through a combination of independent research and personal interactions which take me outside of my cultural context, I hope to explore the science-culture symbiosis and discern its implications for addressing modern environmental crises. This examination will better prepare me for my future as an educator, scientist, and activist, and the knowledge gained will become increasingly important as human societies are forced to renegotiate their relationship with the biosphere.


The nations I am proposing for this inquiry—India, Malaysia, and China—are relevant because of their non-Western influences and their escalating importance in global markets and international scientific communities. In each of these settings science developed prior to significant contact with the West, yet each nation also offers unique opportunities to explore the tension between modernization and Westernization in a scientific context. The initial stages of my study, which are already underway, involve cultivating a deeper historical understanding of how, and why, the sciences developed in each of these contexts. I want to explore how indigenous scientific traditions contrast with Western notions of science, and how contemporary scientists view this contrast. More specifically, I want to examine these individuals’ awareness of science history and philosophy in their respective contexts, their interactions with international scientific communities, and their perspectives on the roles of science and technology in addressing environmental concerns. I intend to gain these insights through independent reading, but also more directly through observation and interviews with science practitioners, as well as science educators and students.


Important historical connections exist between cultural views of nature and epistemology; i.e., our view of nature informs how we might best gain knowledge about it. An increased understanding of history, culture, and popular conceptions of science should provide powerful insights into how bio-ethical concerns are both defined and negotiated within societal discourse. While there are numerous contemporary bio-ethical case studies which merit investigation, I have chosen these nations’ responses to environmental concerns as my primary comparative framework. This approach builds upon my previous research and organizing experiences while offering new insights on the pursuit of environmental sustainability. The three nations I have chosen also represent a significant range of success in the pursuit of environmental sustainability. For instance, Yale University’s most recent Environmental Sustainability Index ranks Malaysia 38, India 101, and China 133 out of the 146 nations examined. In the United States and elsewhere, such quantitative indicators are increasingly being relied upon to help guide individuals and policy-makers in assessing the efficacy of their decisions. These indicators incorporate social as well as environmental measurements and therefore serve as an important nexus between science and culture. Through observation and interviews with participants in environmental advocacy organizations in each of these nations, I will gain broader perspectives on the roles science and technology play in both ameliorating and exacerbating environmental crises.


India

Relatively little Western scholarship exists on the history of science and technology in India, as compared with much of the rest of Asia. Yet the Indian subcontinent has a long-standing tradition of scientific/technological development and cultural exchange. India is also home to incredibly diverse philosophical traditions, including ancient Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as one of the most sizeable Muslim populations in the world. As the world’s largest modern democracy and one of its fastest growing economies, India is poised to take center-stage in the 21st century. However, it will face many challenges along the way, including overcoming the poverty experienced by much of its population and the environmental and social consequences of rapid population growth and industrialization.


I would like to spend the first five months of my Watson year in India. A strong contact for the initial stages of my study will be the Centre for Studies in Science Policy (CSSP) at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The CSSP is a premier Indian research center which focuses on many issues germane to my interests. The CSSP is also well-situated within a university that has a strong emphasis on the physical sciences, and within New Delhi, the home of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). INSA provides scientific advice to Indian governments and serves as a national and international scientific forum. The Academy also strives to “maintain liaison between science and humanities” and publishes the Indian Journal of History of Science. In addition, I have identified and corresponded with an NGO partner—the Barefoot College network. The Barefoot College utilizes over twenty campuses (3) throughout the country to address pressing local needs such as clean water, energy, and women’s rights, and employs the concept of appropriate technology (4) in its sustainable development efforts.


Malaysia

I would like to spend the following three months of my Watson year in peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia is a founding member, and one of the more developed, of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (5). In addition, Malaysia is a charter member of The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) (6). Through its participation in both ASEAN and the OIC, Malaysia is pursuing the formation of a more cohesive international scientific community. ASEAN is also working towards a regional approach to environmental challenges, via several Environmental Working Groups. Given the degree of ASEAN’s cooperation and the diversity of its member nations, it is a microcosm for the integration of diverse scientific traditions and multilateral approaches to environmental sustainability. As such, Malaysia serves as a unique vantage point for exploration of emerging global scientific and civil society communities. It also offers a perspective on how these communities are overcoming, and perhaps benefiting from, what have traditionally been cultural and political barriers to cooperation.
In addition to collaboration with Tata Energy and Resources Institute, whose Southeast Asia office is in Darul Ehsan, I would like to interview and observe scholars in the University of Malaya’s Science and Technology Studies (STS) department, which is unique due to its placement within the natural sciences faculty rather than the social sciences faculty as is found with most Western STS programs. My primary contact in the Malaysian scientific community will be the Malaysian Academy of Sciences (Kuala Lumpur), which facilitates Malaysia’s international scientific partnerships such as those found in ASEAN and the OIC.


China

I would like to spend my final four months in China, primarily Hong Kong and Beijing. Due significantly to the scholarship of Joseph Needham, in recent years Westerners have gained a better understanding of the history of Chinese science. Scientific development in China occurred with little Western influence throughout much of its history, and as such offers exciting opportunities for exploring interesting philosophical questions regarding the relationship between science and culture. Beyond purely philosophical objectives, China’s role in world affairs and the global scientific community, as with both India and ASEAN, is of increasing importance. China is also under significant scrutiny by much of the West, who view its environmental and human rights policies as deeply flawed (7). Given the size of China’s population and its growing industrial might, these issues can scarcely be overlooked.


My initial contact in China is the Global Environmental Institute, co-founded in 2003 with Worldwatch, who alleges it is “China’s first independent, knowledge-based environmental NGO.” In addition, I have been invited to collaborate with a Chinese NGO “Friends of Nature,” which is currently creating a “Green Exchange” program with the aim of facilitating information and resource exchange between Chinese student environmental groups and their international counterparts. I also plan to draw upon the resources of the U.S. Embassy’s “Environment, Science, Technology and Health Section,” which is located in Beijing and has researched China’s environmental policies extensively. Finally, the Center for Applied Ethics (Hong Kong) has expressed an interest in collaboration. An interesting backdrop to these interactions will be China’s preparations for the 2008 Olympics, particularly its efforts to meet the environmental standards required by the Olympic Committee.


In discussing his theory of special relativity, Albert Einstein acknowledged not only his colleagues in the scientific community, but also David Hume, a philosopher whose work helped Einstein to recognize the anthropocentric assumptions buried deep in Newtonian physics. As a nation which prides itself on being at the forefront of scientific innovation, we have much to gain from a citizenry which employs a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan understanding of how science operates. As citizens in a global society with finite resources, we have much to lose by failing to secure environmental sustainability. As a Watson fellow, I believe I can yield valuable knowledge through connecting these concerns, knowledge which will better prepare me for a life of public service and better prepare our society for the uncertain future ahead.


(1) Ti-Yong is a Chinese phrase reflecting ongoing debates about the possibility of importing foreign methodologies (e.g., technology) while maintaining traditional culture. Ti means "substance" or "essence" and yong means "function" or "utility." A popular phrase in this debate is "Chinese essence, Western utility," or zhongti xiyong.

(2) The American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd edition.

(3) Barefoot College is not an accredited university, but something more akin to a network of extension agencies like those found in rural areas of the United States.

(4) A phrase derived from Gandhian economic principles, appropriate technology utilizes ecological and social criteria to design technological solutions fitting the context in which they are utilized.

(5) ASEAN has a combined population in excess of 500 million, a GDP of $737 billion, and is working towards a significant integration of its member nations on nearly all fronts.

(6) The OIC is a 57-member international body which aims to “safeguard the interest and ensure the progress…of Muslims in the world over.”

(7) E.g., China’s low Environmental Sustainability Index rating; in addition, Freedom House’s 2005 “Freedom in the World” report ranks China as “not free.”