Fake spies
Chinese students bringing concrete benefits to US despite lingering skepticism against them
The Institute of International Education in the US released its 2018 Open Doors Report on Tuesday, which said that the number of Chinese students studying in the US was 363,341 in the 2017-18 academic year, an increase of 3.6 percent from the year before. China has become the biggest source of international students for the US.
Despite the benefits brought by the Chinese overseas students, some US politicians made some disappointing remarks, saying that almost all Chinese overseas students are spies.
During a speech in October, US Vice President Mike Pence named the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, which has organizations on 150 American campuses, as “an attempt to enforce the Communist Party’s political line over Chinese students abroad,” US media reported.
Some politicians, including US President Donald Trump, called for limitations on allowing Chinese overseas students to work or get internships in the US.
The Trump administration debated the idea of banning visas for Chinese nationals to come and study at US universities out of espionage fears, the Financial Times reported.
Professors, students and Chinese parents reached by the Global Times said that calling Chinese overseas students “spies” is not only groundless, but would harm the US.
A man surnamed Zhang, who was an international student at Columbia University and now works on Wall Street, told the Global Times that one of the biggest advantages of the US is its open immigration policies, which attract talent from around the world.
Zhang recalled his life as an international student 20 years ago, saying that “the IT industry was booming in the US at that time. The whole country was thriving and it was open and welcome to international students. But that atmosphere has gone forever.”
Zhang said that calling Chinese international students “spies” is groundless. Some Chinese students study leading-edge technologies in the US. Whether they work in the US or China after graduation, they play an important role in encouraging bilateral communication in technology and trade.
“The huge market in China has helped encourage technological advances in the US… Without the Chinese market, many US enterprises may also suffer… Cooperation between the two countries is win-win. Some US politicians say that the US is suffering losses, but it’s not so,” Zhang said.
A professor from the computer science major in a US university who asked for anonymity told the Global Times that as a researcher and professor, he “may be convinced by abundant evidence and cases. It’s not appropriate to slander any ethnic group arbitrarily without proper evidence.”
The professor said that many students studied in his university, many of them major in computer science. These students have left good impression on him. These students are brilliant and diligent, longing for better achievements in the field, “just like others.”
The professor said that the technologies which might be stolen by Chinese students may be found in many academic seminars. The professor wondered, Why not “just stop hosting these seminars?”
More than 40 educational organizations from the US took part in the China International Education Exhibition Tour in Beijing in October.
An admissions officer from Syracuse University, who asked for anonymity, told the Global Times during the exhibition that he can feel the enthusiasm of Chinese students and parents about studying in the US.
“I hope the trend will not stop,” the admission officer said, noting that most Chinese international students are undergraduate and graduate students, and their majors seem to have no relevance to “espionage.”
He said that reports on the Trump administration’s plan to ban visas for Chinese international students would make some universities hesitate when enrolling Chinese students.