Prof. Yi Lu on why "Trump's China Policy Is a Disaster for Higher Education," The Chronicle of Higher Education Review

Trump's China Policy Is a Disaster for Higher Education: The administration is alienating international students and imposing a tax on knowledge.

The Review | Opinion

By Yi Lu April 22, 2025

As Donald Trump pursues his trade war against China, the administration risks not only a decoupling of the world's two largest economies but also a broader unraveling of a decades-long relationship. The costs of this trade war must be measured not just in price hikes for consumers or slowed economic growth but also in lost knowledge that will imperil America's understanding of China and the world.

Discussions about trade imbalances focus almost exclusively on Chinese goods. What's missing is a consideration of America's service surplus with China, which comes partly from the billions Chinese families spend on American education. According to the Institute of International Education, 1.1 million international students generated $43.8 billion and supported 378,175 jobs during the 2023-24 academic year. Of these, about a quarter came from China, which spent over $14.3 billion in educational expenditures in 2023. And these figures do not include their long-term contribution to American society, especially its global leadership in science and technology: Chinese students account for 36 percent of Ph.D. graduates in STEM subjects in the United States, and a majority of them choose to remain after graduation.

The trade war threatens American higher education as an industry. While Chinese students still constitute the largest group of international students in the United States, their numbers have dropped from a high of 370,000 in 2019 to about 278,000 today. This decline reflects the slowdown in China's post-pandemic economy, but much of it stems from increased bilateral tensions. Following the China Initiative in 2018 that targeted scientists and researchers of Chinese descent, the Trump administration placed Chinese students, particularly those in STEM fields, under increased visa restrictions through a 2020 executive order. Now, as relations between the two countries deteriorate, Chinese students have become human leverage in the conflict: On March 25, Republican lawmakers introduced a blunt and far-reaching bill, the Stop CCP VISAs Act, that would effectively block Chinese citizens from getting student visas. "Great idea," replied Donald Trump Jr. on X.

 

CONTINUE READING: Yi Lu,"Trump's China Policy Is a Disaster for Higher Education," The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 22, 2025 

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