The climate change seminar held last week at the Asia Society in New York, which focused on China, was quite a surprise.

The event included several US experts on climate change and several prominent scholars on China, such as Orville Schell, Jerome Cohen, Barbara Finamore and Andrew Nathan. I was expecting a lot of criticism of China's approach to climate change.

Academics should be able to express their opinions on their area of expertise, whether they be negative or positive, without people taking undue offense. It is sometimes part of their job to analyze and critique, just as it is part of my job as journalist.