US universities brace for decline in Chinese students after Beijing warning
- American academia becomes newest front in US-China friction
- As tensions mount and distrust expands the two sides face off in new areas
Beijing’s pointed warning on Monday that Chinese students should reassess their prospects for obtaining US visas amid heightened tensions between the two countries is raising concerns in the American academic community.
Chinese undergraduate and graduate students make up the largest portion of foreign students at US universities by far, and that proportion has steadily increased over the past 40 years, according to the US Department of Education’s National Centre for Education Statistics.
“American universities are unanimous in their statements about how much they welcome Chinese students, and a number of university presidents are on record about that,” said John Holden, a senior director at McLarty Associates and a former head of the US-China Strong Foundation, which seeks to increase the number of Americans studying Mandarin.
Analysts said that as tensions mount and distrust expands, the two sides are facing off in new areas.
“This is the next iteration of where this is going as it moves from the economy and security to people-to-people,” said Jude Blanchette, a senior adviser with US-based consultancy Crumpton Group, and author of the book China’s New Red Guard. “Both the US and China are going to weaponise talent. China is not wrong to issue this warning.”
