Aileen Baviera, 1959-2020

A leading China expert has died of the Covid-19 disease.

Aileen Baviera was born in Manila, the Philippines on 26 August 1959 and studied for her first degree at the University of the Philippines Diliman (1979). She then went to Peking University as an exchange student, where she studied history, became fluent in Chinese and travelled widely, including to outlying areas such as Xinjiang. As a result of this experience, she gained a deep understanding of the lives of ordinary Chinese people.

As well as seeing new places, Professor Baviera once wrote in the Philippine publication Rappler, her travels took her “to the people: fellow travellers on a train asking me if I were an Uyghur because they hadn’t yet seen one, a lily-footed grandma skilfully scaling the steps of a mountain trail while I huffed and puffed my way up, a village circus troupe performing all muddied and ragged in a park, a young Mongolian woman making cheese from horse’s milk”.

After spending time in China, Professor Baviera returned to the University of the Philippines Diliman for an MA in Asian studies (1987) and later a doctorate in political science (2003). She served as both a professor and dean of the Asian Centre at the same institution, as well as lecturing at the National Defense College of the Philippines.

The author of many books, including Regional Security in East Asia: Challenges to Cooperation and Community Building (2008), and, from 2010, editor-in-chief of Asian Politics & Policy, she was invited to deliver papers about China in Australia and throughout Asia. Her advice to aspiring China watchers was simple: “Do not be emotionally invested in the subject of your study; you should try to maintain objectivity at all times, which can be quite difficult given the state of ties today.”

Jaime FlorCruz, now a visiting professor at Peking University, was a student with Professor Baviera there in the 1980s.

“As a scholar, she was rigorous and yet humble in her research,” he said. “She acknowledged what she did not know or understand – and single-mindedly looked for answers. Aileen’s Peking University experience gave her a distinct ‘rear-view mirror’ of China which guided her as a China-watcher. That enabled her to discern the complexities and nuances whenever she analysed what’s going on in China and how [it] impacted global affairs.”

Professor Baviera was seemingly exposed to Covid-19 at a conference in Paris. She died of severe pneumonia on 21 March.

joyce.lau@timeshighereducation.com