US interrogations deter Chinese students
Govt malignancy aims to extend bilateral friction into hostility of peoples
A growing number of Chinese students and visiting scholars have faced interrogation and even had their electronic devices seized by US customs amid the simmering bilateral confrontation, and this hostility has affected Chinese students’ willingness to study in the US, according to students reached by the Global Times.
Harassment and interrogation at customs is another method the US administration uses to obstruct normal academic exchanges and blatantly deter international students and scholars, who used to facilitate mutual understanding but are now targeted by the US government, analysts said.
A prospective student at a university in California just deferred her offer for one year amid the pandemic and bilateral tensions. After recent news reports of Chinese being interrogated at US customs, the student surnamed Chen told the Global Times that if such hostility continues in 2021, she may reject the offer and work in China or apply again, this time to a European school.
Hannah He, a Shanghaibased education consultant, told the Global Times on Monday that students using their services to go to the US dropped dramatically this year. Some bought US consultancy packages but switched to other destinations, He said.
“The pandemic is definitely the most immediate threat, but the China-US tensions have
sparked concerns of racism and government violence,” He said, noting that alternatives include the UK, Singapore and nonEnglish speaking countries such as Germany.
According to a white paper issued by New Oriental Education and Technology Group, the UK has overtaken the US and become the top destination for Chinese students.
The Global Times learned from a visiting scholar at a southern US university who just returned to China that he was interrogated for 90 minutes and barely caught his plane.
Many Chinese students and scholars shared their experiences of being interrogated in the “little black room” with leading questions at customs.
A PhD student had his mobile phone, iPad, laptops and hard drives confiscated by US customs in Boston. It will take months to get the devices back, he was told.
“All the questions the officers asked were based on the assumption that I was spying for a Chinese institute,” the student wrote on Sina Weibo, noting the two-hour interrogation was “a complete negation of my work and my dignity.”
US border agents carried out 1,147 searches of Chinese nationals’ electronic devices in 2019, up 66 percent from the previous year, according to official data obtained by the media.
Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times that deterring Chinese will eventually backfire as “international students and scholars have long been an important part of American research institutes.”
Lü noted that by demonizing every Chinese student and scholar as spies, the US is trying to instigate Americans’ hatred against Chinese, extending the China-US diplomatic friction into radical hostility between the two peoples.