A Sino-American bond, forged by Chinese students, is in peril
Plummeting Chinese demand for a US education will undermine American soft power
THE FIRST Chinese graduate from an American university, Yung Wing, deemed his college years the great adventure of his life. Alas, his graduation from Yale in 1854, sponsored by missionaries who spotted his talents as a boy in rural Guangdong, was a high point. Soon political mistrust and prejudice, both in America and China, filled his life with setbacks. These included the ending of his scheme that involved bringing 30 Chinese youths to America each year. Back in Beijing, imperial mandarins saw value in the science that the youngsters studied in New England. These officials were especially eager to take up a promise that the military academies of West Point and Annapolis would admit Chinese cadets. Then, in a mark of disdain for the ailing Qing empire, America broke that promise. Mandarins were further appalled by the irreverent, sports-loving, churchgoing Yankee ways picked up by Yung’s charges. In 1881 they summoned the boys home in disgrace. Yung lost his American citizenship to a xenophobic law passed a year later, the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Yung would recognise the pressures his Chinese heirs face today. In the coming weeks many will have to decide how and whether to pursue studies in America. They are living through a moment when campuses, borders and minds on both sides of the Pacific are being closed by mutual suspicion (including overly sweeping American fears about on-campus espionage) and a pandemic.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "American soft power, trashed"
More from China
Visiting Europe, Xi Jinping brings up an old grievance
In marking the bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade, Mr Xi is sending a message to America
The Chinese scientist who sequenced covid is barred from his lab
The Communist Party is still hounding experts whose work might expose its pandemic missteps
Why China’s companies are recruiting their own militias
Officials want to keep things calm in an era of slowing growth