US shouldn’t shut the door on Chinese students

As part of its continuing campaign to prevent China from stealing American intellectual property, President Donald Trump’s administration is considering restrictions on the number of Chinese citizens enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. Targeting foreign students will undermine U.S. competitiveness, not enhance it.

Of the 1 million foreign nationals enrolled at U.S. schools, nearly one-third are from China — double that of any other country. Chinese students receive 10 percent of all doctorates awarded in the U.S., most of them in science and engineering. Some 80 percent of Chinese doctoral holders stay in the U.S. and work after they earn their degrees. There are more Chinese engineers working on artificial intelligence at U.S. technology companies than in all of China.

The gains to the U.S. economy aren’t limited to Silicon Valley. Chinese students spend at least $12 billion a year on tuition and living expenses — money that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in and around college campuses. High fees for international students subsidize tuition for U.S. citizens and — until recently — have helped public universities offset cuts in government funding.

The U.S. can and should do more to counter Chinese theft of American trade secrets. But only a tiny fraction of students from China have ever been charged with illegal activity.

The most sensible strategy to protect the country’s intellectual property isn’t to keep talented foreign students out, but to encourage them to stay in the U.S. and put their knowledge to use — by joining the workforce or starting a business.

Whether the president imposes new quotas on Chinese students, the goal of some of his advisers seems clear: to make “designated” foreigners unwelcome on U.S. campuses. That’s not only un-American, but also self-defeating.