This week I am starting Schwarzman Scholars and with it my site to share reflections throughout the coming year. Get a glimpse into the life of an elite scholarship in a time of crisis, read about my experience applying, the shock of going online and thoughts about why it is worthwhile to study in China on the brink of a new cold war.
It was 14 November. I was applying the finishing touches to my application for the Global Governance and Diplomacy MSc course offered at Oxford. Two hours before the deadline, I had no minutes to spare. That’s when the familiar chime ringed. I received a new email, and the subject read: “Schwarzman Scholars Admission Decision”.
Three years prior, I stumbled upon an advertisement. It claimed that there existed a master’s programme that focused on global governance, was based in China and attracted the crème de la crème of academia and industry from across the planet to teach a new generation of leaders. If that was not enough, it also included the two words every prospective student is delighted to see: “fully funded”. In fact, without the grant this would have been 100% impossible for me. I already have some loans, no space for more.
Anyhow, it was love at first sight. Ever since I concluded my mandate as a junior consultant for the youth olympics, I have been longing to return to China. The fact that 中国 may also hold the best academic and professional opportunity in my life was genuinely mesmerising.
But thankfully, my sense of realism did not escape me. I skimmed through the directory of the first Schwarzman Cohort only to realise that as much as I was doing well for my age, the chances of being accepted were slimmer than the ice on Lake Balaton this Winter (beautiful lake, by the way). Still, I could not deny the connection. I decided to postpone the application by two years so that I could gain more knowledge and experience to share with my fellow scholars, should I make it to Beijing. The decision paid off.
I opened the mail to these words: “We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen for the 2020/2021 class of Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University”. For a few moments, it did not quite sink in. “Over 4,700 candidates applied from China, the United States, and around the world; just over 400 candidates were interviewed”. And I was one to come through.
Many in Europe do not know this programme yet, so let me make a comparison: this is about 4 times harder than securing an offer from Harvard Law, while the quality of competition is not less daunting.
You can imagine, I was as happy as a clam. It was a breakthrough moment. Not too many know, but for my undergrad I was rejected by Cambridge. The Department of War Studies at King’s was truly the best place for me but I still had some leftover thorns from that. This achievement finally removed them. It was also the first time I won something very significant. My other achievements, the youth delegate programme, V4SDG and various projects, were all built through hard work, not received in recognition. Schwarzman was different. I applied, I had been tested, I was chosen.
Thus, I never finished my application to Oxford. The moment I opened the offer letter, I was off dreaming about my year at the College. When on 5 December our whole cohort appeared in a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, I really believed I was in for a smooth ride. Boy, could I be more wrong…
We all heard about Coronavirus but never really believed it will affect our studies. Then came the lockdown in Wuhan, the mass outbreak in Italy, and from one day to another the whole world closed its borders. 4th Cohort Scholars were first told their programme would temporarily move to Abu Dhabi but were swiftly moved further online as the situation deteriorated.
It was already May, I was on the phone all day, all night arranging PPE shipments through our medical trading company as whole countries cascaded into chaos. I knew we lived under the sword of Damocles but still believed we would be tested, quarantined and promptly moved to China. Then the administration broke the news: we will start online, no visas are being issued.
It was shocking. So many plans and ideas shattered in a matter of milliseconds as the retinal input crashed into my primary visual cortex. I felt so ready for this, and now it was all denied. No moving to China, no night-long discussions with peers, no Schwarzman football team, no nothing. I felt emptiness. Then denial. The whole day I was thinking about how we should mobilise our collective networks to acquire diplomatic passports for all the scholars. I was quite distraught as I put myself to bed late that night.
Then in the coming days it hit me: what are we Schwarzman Scholars for if we cannot adapt to changing circumstances? Surely, it is horrible we do not get to bond in person but what are we going to do about it? We got to work.
In the past few months, we have built our own Slack platform, created several thematic chats, held random coffee sessions with each other, collaborated on business, learnt Chinese and planned how we could move together in SchwarzHouses across the globe until we can board those planes to Beijing.
The administration was just as inspiring if not more so. They have empowered us and been working tirelessly on not only recreating an in-college experience but offering more. Although we have not met, we are already more of a team and family than many other similar community, and we are just about to start…
We have no clue what’s next but now I am sure that we will make it right.
And since such an exciting and unusual programme merits good storytelling, I pledge that this is not the last post you see about it. We operate by Chatham House rules, but I will try tell you as much as possible about our adventures, courses, the scholars, the opportunities, the ideas, the fun, and occasionally my thoughts too on various matters.
On the last one, here is the first: why am I starting a programme that’s Chinese as relations get frostier by the day?
Some people asked me whether I am worried that the perception of studying at the most prominent university in China, Tsinghua (清华大学) would be more negative than positive. In other words: will I become a Chinese spy?
First of all, I won’t. I am a blue-hearted European. The whole reason I am so excited about studying in China is the opportunity to explore how the EU could prosper in the new global environment as a sovereign, strong and peaceful entity. Undermining that would be a drastic failure.
Secondly, no matter what happens, no talking is poor policy. While there are legitimate security challenges stemming from the rise of China as a global superpower, shutting the door can hardly be the answer. The reality of the world is that China is an actor to reckon with. There is no going around that: they are core curriculum in the 21st century. Better understanding their motivations and finding points of common interest are as key to solving climate change as to protecting our European ways of life.
Lastly, I will join precisely because such questions are now being raised. As a new cold war rhetoric is emerging, there will be less who see clearly, and even less who can build bridges when needed. From liberals to conservatives, talking in “China virus” terms will become more fashionable, maybe even a new wave of McCarthyism. While that will do nothing for efficiently protecting our sovereignty, it will gradually turn mutual trust impossible. A few months ago, we had a zoom session with a very high level former US government official who told us that studying in Moscow and specialising in Soviet Studies were some of the best decisions in his/her life, and that the need for us was greater than ever. I think so.
Multilateralism is under threat from right and left, above and below. If we let it go, eventually we will lose everything we cherish in Western enlightenment. Since the numbers do not work for us anymore, it is survival time with multilateralism as our last safety net. Maintaining ties with China, strengthening international relations is not an elective but an imperative.
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