Alert reminds students of risks of going to study in U.S.

BEIJING, June 5 (Guangming Online) -- China’s Ministry of Education issued an alert for Chinese scholars studying abroad at the United States Tuesday. The alert indicates that the U.S. has been restricting the visas of some Chinese exchanging scholars in ways such as extending the visa checking period, shortening the period of validity, and raising the refusal rate.

Therefore, China’s Ministry of Education reminds scholars who plan to study abroad of making enough risk assessment, raising awareness of security, and making related preparation.

Under the background of China-U.S. trade friction, the U.S. Congress and the Federal Government are politicizing the normal scholarly communication and slandering Chinese scholars as “non-traditional espionage”, said Cheng Jiacai, the director of Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange, in an interview.

In addition, Sheng Jianxue, the secretary-general of China Scholarship Council said some departments and institutions of the U.S. have impeded the normal scholarly and cultural communication between China and the U.S. without any evidence. Sheng also said China supports that no matter how the political and economical relationships among countries change, we should always encourage scholarly exchange all over the world.

From 1978 to 2018, the total number of all kinds of Chinese overseas exchanging scholars has reached up to 5,857,100. In 2018, the number of Chinese scholars studying abroad is 662,100, which has increased by 8.83% compared with that of 2017. In the future, Chinese Government will keep the policy guideline of “supporting studying abroad, encouraging coming back to China, offering freedom for scholars to decide whether they want to stay abroad or come back, promoting scholars to make positive impacts. China will continue sharing education concepts and resources with other countries in order to promote education together.

Recently some media reported that Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has not admitted any students from Chinese mainland, and there has been the rumor that the U.S. colleges are shutting down their gates toward Chinese students. However, Xu Mei, the press spokesman of China’s Ministry of Education, indicated that China’s Ministry of Education has already requested Chinese Embassies in foreign countries to fact-check and has asked some U.S. colleges for information. The conclusion is that now there have already been students admitted by MIT.

Colleges like Yale University and Columbia University indicate that they have admitted more than 10 students from Chinese mainland, which is similar to last year. Xu Mei said that although China-U.S. trade frictions continue, the overall situation of Chinese scholars studying abroad in the U.S. remains stable.

In addition, the presidents of some famous U.S. colleges, including Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, University of California--Berkeley, and Rice University, said that they welcome and support all the international students and scholars including Chinese. Xu Mei also said that the president of Harvard University indicated that Chinese and U.S. colleges should strengthen cooperation and communication, which is important for China-U.S. relationship.

Translated by Gao Xinran