Educational Exchanges Change Sino-American Relations

Globalization is not just the globalization of capitals and commodities; it is also the globalization of education and culture. Educational exchange, with its concept of “reaching out and welcoming in,” is the best option to seek out common ground while retaining differences and going beyond shortsightedness.

When it comes to Sino-American relations, “big things,” such as political, economic and military security, are often given a lot of attention by many. In fact, the educational exchange between these two nations has flourished greatly. Of particular note is the “blowout,” or exponential growth, of the number of Chinese studying in the U.S. since 2009. In my opinion, this is the real big thing in Sino-American relations. On the one hand, the exchanges between education and the youth can impact in the bilateral relations between China and the U.S. On the other hand, big things, like the many issues of political chaos and security, do not have long vitality and will soon disappear. But education and human thinking or feeling are the key to a long-lasting impact.

In recent years, one of the biggest changes in college campuses is the increase of Chinese faces. According to the report of the International Education and Research, Chinese students studying in the U.S. during the 2010-2011 school year numbered more than 15.7 million. This is 50,000 more than that of India, which ranked second. Chinese students accounted for nearly 22 percent of the total number of foreign students from all around the world studying in the United States. Back in the 2008 school year, the total number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. was only about 90,000. The total number of students then surged by 29.9 percent in the 2009 school year and by 23.5 percent in the following school year. There are many reasons that account for the “blowout” in 2009, but I think that there are two main reasons. First, the wealth of the middle and high-income classes has grown to a critical point where more and more Chinese families can afford the expense of sending their children to study in the U.S. Second, ever since the financial crisis, many American colleges have faced with serious financial problems and are thus forced to lower the threshold for enrollment to get more students.

I can personally relate to these two reasons. I can still recall that when I was studying in the U.S. years ago, a Chinese student coming to the U.S. meant having a scholarship. In other words, one would not be able to come to the U.S. without a scholarship. Back then, very few families could afford the tuition and living expenses in the United States. On top of that, it was extremely difficult to get a U.S. visa without a full scholarship. In just ten years, things took a dramatic change. Now, Chinese students mean tuition for the colleges, since most of these students study in the U.S. at their own expense. According to one Sina report, Chinese students have contributed at least 4.4 billion dollars to the U.S. economy annually. This calculation is reasonable because a year’s tuition plus living expenses costs about $40,000 at most public universities. That means if 10,000 out of the some 150,000 students come to study in the U.S. at their own expense, then their total expenses for a year would be some 40 billion dollars. This excludes other indirect economic contributions, such as the money spent by the families of the students when they visit the U.S.

Ten years ago, there were very few Chinese undergraduates in the U.S. Today, Chinese undergraduates constitute up to 36.2 percent of the total number of undergraduates. In the past, only top students with a scholarship could make their way to the U.S. This is opposed to now, where even mediocre students can be admitted into good colleges due to the lowering of the threshold for enrollment in these institutions. From the elite to the ultra-low thresholds, the Sino-American educational exchange has also experienced tremendous changes from training elites to universalizing education.

Today, Chinese students have become a large group in many American universities, where it is very common to see universities with well over 1,000 Chinese students. For instance, Pennsylvania State University had 1,640 Chinese students in 2010, the University of Michigan had 1,853, and the number of Chinese students at the University of Southern California was as high as 2,513 people in 2011. A lot of universities view these students as gold mines. They set up offices in mainland China, mobilize Chinese professors to enroll more students and collaborate with local Chinese universities. The extent of the educational exchange between China and the U.S. is far beyond the imagination.

While the number of Chinese students who study in the U.S. continues to grow rapidly, there are also a growing number of Americans studying in China. In Nov. 2009, President Obama announced the “100,000 Strong Initiative,” which hopes to recruit 100,000 American students to study in China in the next four years. Although there are only about 10,000 Americans studying in China, a large number of young Americans have flocked into China in various ways. Many of my American students have experienced living in China for a considerable period of time. Many of them are teaching English at the local schools and learning Chinese at the same time. And some are interning in China and taking part in social practices. On top of that, with the introduction of the Confucius Institute and Chinese lessons in American communities, more and more Americans are beginning to learn the Chinese language and its culture right in the U.S.

What do Chinese students studying in the U.S. and a warm Sino-American educational exchange mean to China and to the U.S. respectively? In my opinion, this phenomenon has gone beyond the realm of education and will have a profound impact on the Sino-American relations in the long run. If could look at Sino-U.S. relations in the next ten or twenty years, we can imagine seeing a great crowd of core members who have the experience of studying in the U.S. in virtually all the domains in China. These individuals have a more in-depth understanding of the American culture and community. Although there will still be problems in Sino-U.S. relations, misunderstandings caused by cultural and social differences will be decreasing.

Likewise, there will be an increasing number of American individuals who have more of an understanding of China. Even now, I can clearly sense that the new generation of American experts on China, who experienced a close Sino-American exchange, is largely different from their predecessors. Take, for example, one of my professors, who was among the first China experts accredited to the embassy. She had never been to mainland China prior to working in Beijing. She learned Chinese in Hong Kong and thus often makes fun of the way she speaks Chinese with a Hong Kong accent. The new younger generation of American scholars who study about China, however, are very much different. Almost all of them have long-term experience studying, living or working in China. Many of them are not only fluent speakers of Chinese but also read Chinese. I think that they no doubt have a more full and realistic understanding of China.

In a report of the International Education and Research, China is comfortably ahead in almost all of the data when compared to other countries. However, China placed second in one particular area: In the 2010 school year, China saw 23.5 percent of growth in the number of students studying in the U.S. compared to the previous year, but it only ranked second among all other countries. Saudi Arabia ranked first, with an increase of 43.6 percent in a year! A country with the population of 28.4 million, Saudi Arabia now has about 22,000 students studying in the U.S. I believe that the mutual understanding between the U.S. and the Arab world would be altered from this.

Globalization is not just the globalization of capitals and commodities; it is also the globalization of education and culture. Educational exchange, with its concept of “reaching out and welcoming in,” is the best way to seek out common ground while retaining differences and going beyond shortsightedness.