- In Shanghai, China, students Helen Dong and Yvonne Wong have both decided against studying in the U.S., a destination of choice for many decades for Chinese students
- While costs were a concern for Dong, Wong, 24, who is now studying for a master’s degree in comparative literature and cultures at the University of Bristol in the UK, said her issue was safety
- As geopolitical shifts redefine U.S.-China relations, there are signs that the decades-long enthusiasm that has sent some three million Chinese students to the U.S. could be waning
SHANGHAI, China: In Shanghai, China, students Helen Dong and Yvonne Wong have both decided against studying in the U.S., a destination of choice for many decades for Chinese students.
Dong, a 22-year-old senior studying advertising, said it was because of the cost. “It does not work for me when you have to spend 2 million (yuan) (US$278,000) but find no job upon returning,” said Dong, who is heading to Hong Kong this autumn instead.
While costs were not a concern for Wong, 24, who is now studying for a master’s degree in comparative literature and cultures at the University of Bristol in the UK, she said the issue was safety.
“Families in Shanghai usually do not want to send their daughters to a place where guns are not banned; that was the primary reason. Between the U.S. and the UK, the UK is safer, and that is the biggest consideration for my parents,” Wong said.
As geopolitical shifts redefine U.S.-China relations, there are signs that the decades-long enthusiasm that has sent some three million Chinese students to the U.S. could be waning, even with interest in studying abroad rebounding after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fanta Aw, executive director of the Washington-based NAFSA Association of International Educators, said, “International education is a bridge. A long-term bridge because the students who come today are the engineers of the future. They are the politicians of the future; they are the business entrepreneurs of the future.”
Andrew Chen, chief executive officer of Pittsburgh-based WholeRen Education, which has advised Chinese students in the U.S. for the past 14 years, said, “This is not a periodic wave. This is a new era.”
Citing an executive order by former President Donald Trump to ban Chinese students who have attended schools with links to the Chinese military, Beijing has criticized the U.S. for its unfriendly policy toward some Chinese students.
