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Opinion | Sino-US youth exchanges are vital – and Hong Kong has a role to play
- Amid threats such as climate change, more exchanges and dialogues between young people in the US and China can help forge trust
- Hong Kong also has a crucial role to play when it comes to connecting youth across the Pacific, owing to its unique concentration of intellectual capital
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At a time when global challenges ranging from climate change to pandemics require sincere and thoughtful cooperation, Sino-American youth exchanges play an outsize role in dispelling misconceptions and fostering much-needed interpersonal ties and trust.
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The status quo is undoubtedly worrying. Only 211 Americans studied in mainland China between 2021 and 2022, with a slight rebound to 700 in 2023 – a downturn from around 11,000 before Covid-19. In 2023, for the first time in 15 years, China was no longer the top source of international students in the United States, overtaken by India.
A mix of China’s harsh lockdowns, heightening geopolitical tensions, racist attacks targeting ethnic Chinese individuals in the US and incomplete or erroneous information has contributed to the cooling of education ties.
A recent Pew Research poll revealed that roughly four-fifths of Americans have an unfavourable view of China, while 70 per cent of Americans aged 65 or above view countering China as a top American priority. Reassuringly, only 28 per cent of those aged 18 to 29 share that attitude.
Yet given the pressure on politicians to out-hawk one another in the US, as well as increasingly mainstream views of both the Chinese and American establishments that the two countries are locked in bitter, intense rivalry, improvements in bilateral relations should not be expected any time soon.
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That said, it is premature to give in to resignation. As governments spar, people must step up to fill the void through people-to-people exchanges. For three reasons, the youth offer a promising source of hope.
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