A recent report from The New York Times warned that exchange student programs between the U.S. and China are under threat from geopolitical tensions between the two world powers.
The Times’ China correspondent Vivian Wang noted that if the flow of exchange students between the countries dissolves, it is a major sign of the loss of good will between both nations.
“Students have been an anchor in the two countries’ relations, even when political or economic ties have soured,” the reporter said, adding, “But that anchor is now under threat.”
Her report opened with the sentiment that “millions” of young Chinese students still “dream of an American education,” but that there is newfound “anxiety” among them.
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She asked, “Did America still want Chinese students? And were Chinese students sure they wanted to go to America?” The reporter then quoted the father of a Chinese student considering graduate school in America: “We see the negative news, so it’s better to be careful.”
“After all, the entire situation is a bit complicated,” he added, citing “frequent headlines about gun violence, anti-Asian discrimination and, of course, tensions between the United States and China, at one of their highest levels in decades,” the Times reported.
Wang mentioned the history of the robust exchange student programs between the superpowers, stating that “For nearly the past two decades, Chinese students have made up the largest share of international students in the United States.” She added, “And for Americans, until the coronavirus pandemic, China was the most popular destination for study abroad outside of Western Europe, according to an annual State Department-funded survey.”
The reporter continued, “For the last three years, the number of Chinese students in the United States has fallen, according to the State Department survey.”
The same is happening with American students in China, as there are only around 350 students in the country “compared to more than 11,000 in 2019.” The report noted how the pandemic had much to do with that steep drop.
Wang explained that both China and the U.S. are seeking exchange students to return, “but the official rhetoric belies obstacles that both governments have continued to erect, driven by the same nationalism and concerns about national security that have derailed other parts of the relationship.”
“Chinese propaganda regularly depicts the United States as dangerously crime-ridden, and many Chinese are also worried by increased reports of visa denials or border interrogations in the U.S. upon arrival,” she wrote.
Americans are reluctant to study in China due to the leadership of People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping, who Wang noted was “an authoritarian leader who has stoked anti-foreign sentiment.” She also mentioned how “The U.S. government has also prohibited some American students from studying there, and some language-learning programs that it funds have moved from mainland China to Taiwan.”
Wang cited former executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University, Denis Simon, who told her that “Scholarly collaborations at all levels have been eroded by the geopolitical tensions. But a reduction in student exchanges could be especially harmful to the future of understanding between the two countries.”
The report noted how Chinese students are “concerned about programs like the Justice Department’s now-scrapped China Initiative, which critics said discriminated against scientists of Chinese descent,” and are wary about visas being “revoked or denied under a Trump-era order, upheld by the Biden administration, that bans students from certain Chinese universities from graduate study in the United States.”
Wang spoke to Hung Huang, one of the first students sent by the communist Chinese government to study in America decades ago. She claimed, “The Chinese have flocked to America all these years, because they feel that that particular freedom and tolerance will allow them to flourish. The problem is that somehow Americans have figured out, to win this battle in their mind against China, they need to be authoritarian also.”
As for China, Wang wrote that “many foreigners have grown wary” of the country. “Under Mr. Xi, restrictions on academic freedom have threatened to extend to foreign-run campuses in China, with some administrators emphasizing the importance of the Communist Party,” she wrote.
