Commentary by Zhong Sheng*
Washington recently betrayed its public promises, imposing unreasonable visa restriction on [mainland] Chinese students and researchers.
To force the implementation of the policy that has been widely criticized by Americans, the White House groundlessly accused Chinese students and researchers, relating them with technology theft, spying, and security risks.
Such a practice is purely political persecution and racial discrimination, and seriously violates the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese students and researchers in the US, placing extremely negative impacts on the normal people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and the US.
The White House’s lies to stigmatize Chinese students and researchers are absurd. Officials acknowledged there was no direct evidence that pointed to wrongdoing by the students who are about to lose their visas, wrote The New York Times in a report. American universities, the most straightforward critics of US practices, also expressed their dissatisfaction. “I don’t even understand the term ‘academic espionage,’” said Mark C. Elliott, Harvard’s vice-provost for international affairs. He said for academics the goal is to publish what they have learned, and it’s to share. Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University remarked that “academic research is intended to be shared – released into the public domain to advance human progress.” He opposes the US law enforcement and intelligence agencies to develop more robust protocols for monitoring foreign-born students and visiting scholar – particularly if they are ethnically Chinese.
People-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and the US, including their educational cooperation in the past four decades, have received wide support from the two sides, serving as an important pillar for their bilateral relations.
In late 1970s, former US president Jimmy Carter told China to send 100,000 students to his country. Since then bilateral educational cooperation has set sail and constantly injected vitality and energy into the general relationship between the two countries.
400,000 Chinese students
At present, there are over 400,000 Chinese students studying in the US, and China has been the largest source of international students in the US for years. The fundamental reason for such achievements is that Chinese-US educational cooperation conforms to the common demand of the two countries, as well as the trend of the time of openness and cooperation.
However, to welcome the Chinese students is only a lip service paid by Washington as it constantly makes trouble for China-US educational exchanges. It limited the length of visas to one year for Chinese graduate students working in fields deemed “sensitive”, and frequently set obstacles for Chinese students and researchers in visa applications. This time, China-US educational cooperation was once again deteriorated by the visa restrictions imposed by the White House.
Does US think it’s fragile?
As the US becomes more sensitive, its “national security” is gradually incorporating everything. It seems like the country is trying to isolate itself from the rest of the world. Does the US, the world’s only superpower, think it’s fragile?
Some American politicians are obsessed with Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game, paving the road for their anti-China policies with frequent lies. What they did has triggered broad concerns in the US society. Some insightful people noted that confrontation would only damage US interests. US universities also raised their voices immediately after the visa restriction policy was unveiled, stressing the move would result in multiple impacts on science and technology development, campus culture and universities’ economic performance.
By stigmatizing Chinese students and researchers, the US politicians are indeed fanning up the so-called external threat so that they can act tougher in diplomacy and seek political gains. Recently, the legal and civil rights organization “Asian Americans Advancing Justice” denounced the US ban on Chinese students from studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics in America, saying this move was rooted in the same racism and xenophobia that led to the expulsion of countless Chinese Americans and immigrants under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
‘Decoupling’ advocates
Learning alone without exchanges with others will lead to ignorance. The “decoupling” advocated by certain US politicians, as well as the new “Cold War” they plan to launch against China, completely go against the trend of time.
The “handshake across the Pacific” by former US president Richard Nixon started a journey that has benefited not only Chinese and Americans, but also the people from around the world. The close relationship between the two countries nowadays conforms to the common aspirations and interests of the two peoples.
Washington should immediately correct its wrongdoing, abandon its Cold War mentality and ideological prejudices, and stop its groundless restriction and unreasonable persecution of Chinese students and researchers.
No one is able to reverse the trend of history. Facilitating friendly exchanges between the two peoples is in line with the will of the people and the trend of time.
*Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by the People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy
- Minor edits and subheadings added by The Macau Post Daily
– Courtesy People’s Daily
