First trade, then technology — now talent. US President Donald Trump’s administration has started taking aim at China’s best and brightest in the US, scrutinizing researchers with ties to Beijing and restricting student visas.
Several Chinese graduate students and academics have told reporters over the past few weeks that they found the US academic and job environment increasingly unfriendly.
Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, dismissed two Chinese-American professors on May 16, and the Chinese Ministry of Education on Monday issued a warning on the risks of studying in the US as student visa rejections soar.
Illustration: Mountain People
“I’m nervous, worried, even saddened by the unnecessary conflict,” said Liu Yuanli (劉遠立), founding director of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s China Initiative, who now serves as dean of Peking Union Medical College’s School of Public Health in Beijing.
“The restrictions on Chinese scholars and students are irrational and go against the very core value that makes US a great nation,” Liu said.
Liu is a participant in China’s controversial “Thousand Talents” recruitment program, which began in 2008 as a way for Beijing to encourage its brightest citizens abroad to help develop the economy back home. More recently, China has sought to play down the program as US concerns about its activities grow.
The developments underscore how the trade conflict is fundamentally changing the relationship between to the world’s two largest economies, from one of greater reliance to increasing suspicion.
Trump’s expanding curbs on Chinese goods and China’s move to set up a sweeping blacklist of “unreliable” foreign entities since their trade talks broke down have helped fuel new Wall Street warnings about a possible global recession.
VISA SCRUTINY
Education has for decades been a strong point of cooperation between the nations, with a surge of Chinese students filling US university coffers, while giving the country access to some of the world’s best research hubs.
The US hosted more than 360,000 students from China last year, more than any other country, a report by the Institute of International Education said.
Still, growth has slowed amid the trade tensions, with the number of students rising 3.6 percent last year — or roughly half the pace of the previous year.
The share of Chinese government-sponsored students refused visas increased to 13.5 percent in the first three months of this year, compared with 3.2 percent in the same period last year, new Chinese government data showed.
Annual student visa renewals, which previously took about three weeks, are now dragging on for months, said several Chinese doctorate candidates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who asked not to be named over concerns that their career prospects could be affected.
One of the students said that they were leaning toward returning home after graduation, worried that the scrutiny of Chinese could continue for years.
“The actions of the US side are causing a chill in China-US educational exchanges and cooperation,” Xu Yongji (徐永吉), deputy director of the ministry’s Department of International Cooperation and Exchange told a briefing in Beijing on Monday.
“We hope that the US side will correct its wrong practices as soon as possible, take a more positive attitude, do more things conducive to promoting bilateral educational exchanges and cooperation,” Xu said.
The ministry criticized what it said were groundless US accusations of “non-traditional espionage activities.”
The ministry cautioned Chinese students about the risks of pursuing a US education only to be denied entry far into the process, a message that highlights a change in attitude in Beijing, even if it is unlikely to curb applications.
“Those in the US who are blocking Chinese students and scholars have another agenda in mind: They are afraid that the Chinese will master advanced technology and that China will walk to the front,” the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, said in a commentary on Tuesday.
“A precipitous drop in the number of Chinese students studying in the US would certainly send shock waves through the American education industry,” it said.
The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The worries have persisted, despite progress claimed by Beijing after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed the issue with Trump during their summit on the sidelines of the G20 meetings in Argentina last year.
Although Chinese state media said that Trump reaffirmed the US’ desire for the country’s students, the White House mentioned no agreements on the issue.
The Trump administration vowed in its 2017 National Security Strategy to review visa procedures and consider restrictions on foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics students from designated countries to ensure that intellectual property is not transferred to competitors.
In June last year, the US Department of State said it would limit the visas for Chinese students studying science and engineering.
UNIVERSITY FIRINGS
Those moves have been followed by actions by US universities such as Emory, where one fired genetics researcher, Li Xiao-Jiang (李曉江), was a Thousand Talents participant.
In April, three researchers were also let go by the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in connection with an investigation into possible foreign attempts to take advantage of its federally funded research.
Some have pushed back against the trend, including Yale University president Peter Salovey, who affirmed the school’s “steadfast commitment” to foreign talent in a May 23 open letter.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs backed his stance, saying personnel and cultural exchanges between the two countries “should not be politicized.”
While the student visa squeeze might help protect US research, it could also accelerate the return of Chinese students and academics.
One of China’s top schools, Jinan University in Guangzhou, pledged to take in Emory’s Li and his lab staff, and Chinese companies are eager to poach the employees of their Silicon Valley peers.
“Of course we are happy to bring them in, if those are the ones we need,” Ren Zhengfei (任正非), the founder of Huawei Technologies Co, told reporters last week.
Xi has repeatedly called for “indigenous innovation” in core technologies since taking power in 2012, and the country has sped up reforms in higher education.
The US ranked sixth on last year’s Global Innovation Index, ahead of No. 17 China.
“It is impossible to count on the United States for technology and innovation, and China has been aware of this for a while,” said Zhao Suisheng (趙穗生), director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies.
“China has no better option than self-reliance to develop its own high-tech talent,” Zhao said.
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