If the past 10 years are an accurate measure, the next 90 may well fulfill predictions that China will own the 21st century. Over the past decade, China's economy has sprinted past those of many countries, most recently Germany, and is now the third largest in the world, behind the United States and Japan. While most of the West is hunkered down trying to dig out of the recession, China is booming.
But while we're showered with examples of China's burgeoning prosperity—it's now the second-largest consumer market for automobiles—we don't hear much about the other China. The one that is rural, poor and backward. Millions of former peasants have flocked to Shanghai, Beijing and other commercial centers, but many more remain tethered to a life scratched out of the soil, surviving by whatever means they can muster. On average, China's 1.3 billion people remain among the most destitute on the planet.
In remote villages of the western provinces, running water is a luxury. Food is monotonous and inadequate. Many children suffer from malnourishment, characterized by severe anemia and stunted cognitive development.
Into this strange dichotomy add a team of Stanford researchers whose work has produced startling results and helped persuade Chinese authorities to adopt new interventions that bring basic health to the millions left behind.
Led by Scott Rozelle, a senior fellow at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute, the Rural Education Action Project has spent years testing and administering simple but effective solutions for children suffering from anemia. Vitamin supplements handed out in schools virtually wiped out the problem for kids in REAP's test group, who performed dramatically better on school exams than children in the study's control group. After learning of REAP's results, the governor of Shaanxi province ordered that all primary school students receive an egg and milk every day. As Joel McCormick, whose story begins on page 40, writes: "The work is trailblazing both in scale and impact, potentially life-changing for tens of millions of children across whole regions of China."
Practical and focused, REAP aimed for answers that were applicable. Its success demonstrates how influential academicians can be when they find the right partners. Rozelle and his team work closely with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, whose recommendations carry far more weight than would an independent research team from the United States. As a result, the research's promise can translate to on-the-ground action.
There is an optimistic subtext to this international collaboration. Regardless of your view of China—there are legitimate concerns about the government's human rights record—its willingness to nurture the activity and apply the findings of an American research team to improve the health of its children is surely a hopeful signal. And it's a reminder that whatever political barriers may confront policymakers, education can be an effective bridge builder.
Rozelle's work exemplifies the dedication and resolve required to solve problems. It also is another example of America's most valuable export, and perhaps its most potent diplomatic asset: the energy and ideas of its educators.
