M-RCBG Associate Working Paper No. 241
Chinese Graduate Students' Experience of U.S. Higher Education Through Covid and U.S.-China Tensions
Richard Yarrow
Victoria Li
Introduction
About 300,000 students from the People’s Republic of China study in the United States. Since 2015, American universities have hosted more students from China than from any other country. This population of students lay the base for academic ties between the U.S. and China. Today, university relations are near the heart of U.S.-China relations—encapsulating issues of intellectual property, national security, cultural exchange, and scientific and economic progress.
These issues are magnified for the subset of Chinese citizen students who pursue graduate degrees in STEM fields. Such students are alternately desired for their talents and politically mistrusted, and find themselves increasingly watched, by authorities on both sides of the Pacific.
On one hand, American universities must be cautious about improper information transfers involving Chinese students and which might harm the position of the United States in an increasingly tense “tech race.” On the other hand, American universities rightly fear that political pressures on Chinese students will alienate talent from a large country that could bring scientific and economic stimulus to the U.S. Historically, Chinese scientists who immigrated to the U.S. have contributed to a growing number of great scientific breakthroughs, from Jiangsu-born Chien-Shiung Wu’s under-appreciated contributions to the Manhattan Project and particle physics, to Hebei-born Feng Zhang’s work in the development of CRISPR. On top of the contributions of specific individuals, if spending by international students is counted in terms of trade, then higher education has become one of the U.S.’s largest exports and one of its most vibrant industries.