China-US relations: can people-to-people cooperation resume if Trump decree still stymies student exchanges?
- The number of Chinese and Americans studying in each other’s country declined on both sides because of the pandemic and China-US tension
- Despite a vow by presidents Xi and Biden to boost people-to-people exchanges, blocks – including Florida’s new state law – to academic swaps remain
The law, which came into effect in July, prohibits public higher education institutions in the state from collaborating in academia or research with anyone from seven “foreign countries of concern”, including China.
Faculty members at the university started a petition this month to urgently ask the institution to develop clear guidance on hiring procedures and allow for continued recruitment of graduate assistants, postdocs and visiting scholars, regardless of national origin.
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Wang, a Chinese faculty member at the university, signed the petition together with more than 300 of his colleagues. The university has not yet responded.
“Individual students, rather than the governments of the countries of concern the law touts to curb, are getting harmed the most,” Wang said.
While top leaders in China and the US have agreed to reboot people-to-people cooperation between the two countries, the situation at the University of Florida highlights the resistance to educational exchanges.
