CHINA AND U.S. SEEK TO REVITALISE STUDY TIES
Both sides aim for more educational exchanges as the number of Americans at Chinese universities drops to 700, down from 25,000 a deacde ago
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but the country’s restrictive Covid-19 policies made it nearly impossible, and now he sees interest among fellow students wane even after China reopened.
Common concerns, he said, include restrictions on academic freedom and the risk of being stranded in China.
These days, only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of close to 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools.
Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see as diminishing economic opportunities and strained relations between Washington and Beijing.
Whatever the reason for the imbalance, US officials and scholars bemoan the lost opportunities for young people to experience life in China and gain insight into a formidable American adversary.
And officials from both countries agree more should be done to encourage student exchanges, at a time when Beijing and Washington can hardly agree on anything else.
“I do not believe the environment is as hospitable for educational exchange as it was in the past, and I think both sides are going to need to take steps,” said Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.
The US has advised its citizens to “reconsider travel” to China over concerns of arbitrary detentions and widened use of exit bans to bar Americans from leaving the country. Campbell said this had hindered the rebuilding of the exchanges, and easing the advisory was now under “active consideration”.
For its part, Beijing is rebuilding programmes for international students that were closed during the pandemic, and President Xi Jinping has invited tens of thousands of US high school students to visit.
The situation was far different after then-president Barack Obama started the 100,000 Strong initiative in 2009 to drastically increase the number of US students studying in China.
By 2012, there were as many as 24,583 US students in China, according to data by the Chinese education ministry. The Open Doors reports by the Institute of International Education, which only track students enrolled in US schools and studying in China for credit, show the number peaked at 14,887 in the 2011-12 school year. But 10 years later, the number was down to only 211.
In late 2023, the number of American students stood at 700, according to Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, who said this was far too few in a country of such importance to the United States.
“We need young Americans to learn Mandarin. We need young Americans to have an experience of China,” Burns said.
Without these US students, “in the next decade, we won’t be able to exercise savvy, knowledgeable diplomacy in China”, warned David Moser, an American linguist who went to China in the 1980s and is now tasked with establishing a new master’s programme for international students at Beijing Capital Normal University.
Moser recalled the years when American students found China fascinating and thought an education there could lead to an interesting career. But he said the days of bustling trade and money deals were gone, while American students and their parents are watching China and the United States move away from each other. “So people think investment in China as a career is a dumb idea,” Moser said.
After 2012, the number of American students in China dipped but held steady at more than 11,000 for several years, according to Open Doors, until the pandemic hit, when China closed its borders and kept most foreigners out. Programmes for overseas students that took years to build were closed, and staff were let go, Moser said.
Amy Gadsden, executive director of China Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, also attributed some of the declining interest to foreign businesses closing their offices in China. Beijing’s draconian governing style, laid bare by its response to the pandemic, also gave American students a pause, she said.
Garrett, who is on track to graduate this summer from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, said he was ambivalent about working in China, citing the lack of access to information, restrictions on discussions of politically sensitive issues and China’s sweeping anti-spying law. He had lived in Hong Kong as a teenager and interned in mainland China, and said he was still interested in travelling to China, but not any time soon.
Some American students remained committed to studying in China, said Andrew Mertha, director of the China Global Research Centre at SAIS. “There are people who are interested in China for China’s sake,” he said. “I don’t think those numbers are affected at all.”
About 40 US students were now studying at the HopkinsNanjing centre, and the number was expected to go up in the autumn to approach the pre-pandemic level of 50 to 60 students, said Adam Webb, the centre’s American co-director.
Gadsden said US universities needed to do more to nudge students to consider China. “We need to be more intentional about creating the opportunities and about encouraging students to do this deeper work on China, because it’s going to be interesting for them, and it’s going to be valuable for the US-China relationship and for the world,” she said.
In China, Jia Qingguo, a professor of international relations and a national political adviser, has suggested Beijing clarify its laws involving foreign nationals, introduce a separate system for political reviews of foreign students’ dissertations, and make it easier for foreign graduates to find internships and jobs in Chinese companies.
Meanwhile, China is hosting American high school students under a plan Xi unveiled in November to welcome 50,000 in the next five years. In January, a group of 24 students from Iowa’s Muscatine High School became the first to travel to China.
People think investment in China as a career is a dumb idea DAVID MOSER, AMERICAN LINGUIST