Educational exchanges can improve ties: Expert

The US-China Higher Education Dialogue and other exchanges are crucial platforms for fostering understanding and cooperation amid geopolitical tensions, an expert says.

"The higher education relationship between the US and China continues to be strategically important to both countries," Denis Simon, a nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute and a senior lecturer at Duke University's Asian Pacific Studies Institute, said in an interview with China Daily.

"China wants to educate its students in a more international setting. The United States needs to increase its understanding of China," he said.

Simon said the dialogue has been convened twice since September 2023, with a third meeting planned for Washington, DC, this year.

The last meeting in October 2024 in Beijing was very productive, Simon noted, adding that "the higher education relationship between the US and China continues to be strategically important to both countries".

He pointed to the drop in Chinese students studying in the US and what he called an alarmingly low number of US students in China.

According to the Open Doors report from the Institute of International Education, Chinese international student enrollment dropped by 4.2 percent to 277,398 during the 2023-24 academic year. Since the number of Chinese students studying in the US peaked at 370,000 in the 2018-19 academic year, it has dropped annually since.

He cited three things that were focused on in the Beijing meeting. One was "building up a brand, a global brand called 'study abroad in China'". The other two were promoting collaborative research and addressing policy issues.

The Washington meeting, according to Simon, will aim to address policy issues impacting educational exchange — such as visa challenges and reciprocity concerns.

Energized relationship

"We want to make sure that not only people understand the risk side of the bilateral education relationship, but most importantly that policymakers understand the upside, the success stories, the mutual benefits that have come to both countries from having a very highly energized education relationship," he asserted.

"Academic exchange and cooperation between the United States and China, already far more restricted than a decade ago, is likely to diminish further under a second Trump presidency," wrote Kyle Jaros, an associate professor of global affairs at the University of Notre Dame, for the US-China Perception Monitor website in November 2024.

A group of House Republicans introduced a legislation on March 14 to deny visas to Chinese students — part of the focus on China as a national security threat.

A US House committee said its chairman sent a letter to six US universities on Wednesday, requesting detailed information about their Chinese national students.

John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, accused China of "embedding "researchers in leading US institutions, "providing them direct exposure to sensitive technologies with dual-use military applications".

The US should stop overstretching the concept of national security, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday, urging it to refrain from harming the rights of Chinese students.

Chinese students account for about a quarter of international students in the US, Mao said.

Dismissing Moolenaar's remarks, Mao said China-US educational cooperation has enhanced mutual understanding between people on both sides and facilitated the US economic prosperity and technological development.

Simon pointed to the positive impact of US education on Chinese professionals in various sectors and the contribution of Chinese students to the internationalization of US campuses.

In November 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in San Francisco that China is ready to invite 50,000 US youngsters to China for exchange and study programs in five years. To implement the initiative, China has set up a YES program — the Young Envoys Scholarship.

Simon expressed support for China's initiative, citing the need for increased people-to-people engagement. He praised the YES program and expressed hope for the establishment of a US version of the China Education Association for International Exchange to facilitate program development.

"My only complaint is that the US side does not have a counterpart agency to act and coordinate to develop programming on the US side," he said. Simon suggested several organizations, including the Institute of International Education and the American Council on Education, as potential candidates.

Wang Qingyun in Beijing contributed to this story.

yifanxu@chinadailyusa.com