by Xinhua writers Yang Shilong, Wu Xiaoling, Gao Shan
NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Leading American experts on Thursday slammed the U.S. administration's threat to "aggressively revoke" visas for Chinese students as unfair, discriminatory and harmful to U.S. interests.
"Start with the immorality of suddenly disrupting young people's lives," said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation and a longtime observer of U.S.-China relations, expressing his deep concern over policies that abruptly upheave the futures of the younger generation.
U.S. universities and students have felt the immediate shock and potential risk. "This is a change we could not have anticipated, especially since many students are currently receiving our acceptance letters and applying for I-20 and visas. I believe they have surely been affected," said Noelle Willecke, associate director for International Student Services at Columbia University.
"After several protests and arrests in the city and on campus, like the famous one in Columbia, many students were arrested, and some of my professors are considering holding classes off-campus or online," said Zah Anuga, a research assistant and student at New York University.
"I am still in the United States and will definitely not leave during the summer, but I truly believe that this sense of fear has spread to everyone, no matter where they are ... It's kind of insane and shameful to do that. This is absolutely a provocation of the amendment," Anuga said.
"Putting in place such anti-China policies indicates that no one in this administration has given serious consideration to all the benefits that have accrued to the U.S. from the sustained presence of students from China," said Denis Simon, former executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University and an expert on higher education and U.S.-China scientific collaboration.
"A look at the global talent pipeline that supplies high end talent to our universities, our companies and our research institutes reveals the tremendous importance of students and scholars coming from the PRC," he said.
Revoking their visas for no explicit reason will damage long-term American competitiveness as this country will experience a serious talent deficit that cannot simply be solved by adding more students from other countries, said Simon.
The damage will also be felt in U.S. colleges and universities in terms of their initiatives for campus internationalization, he said, adding that the presence of Chinese students has helped to broaden global awareness and promote cross cultural understanding.
"Finally, there is the financial impact since most Chinese students at the undergraduate level and in Master's programs pay full tuition and don't receive any financial aid in most cases," said Simon.
These students also contribute financially to the communities in which the universities are located from their spending on rent and groceries to their purchase of clothing and even automobiles, he added.
"All in all, it will prove to be a huge blunder to harass these students whose primary purpose is not malevolent at all but rather to use their U.S. education as a means to improve their lives and advance their knowledge," Simon said.
Since many of the best and brightest have stayed in the United States until recently, the United States will be losing not only future bench scientists and computer engineers but also the stock of technological entrepreneurs who have supplied Silicon Valley and other high tech areas with the talent to push out the cutting edge of new products and services that up to now have made the United States the world's technological leader, he said.
"In a few years, our NSF (National Science Foundation) or NAS (National Academy of Sciences) will conduct the needed study that will highlight the extremely negative consequences to the U.S. from this extremely short-sighted set of actions," he said.
Steve Hoffman, CEO of Founders Space, echoed the warning. "Denying visas to Chinese students is a huge mistake. I'm adamantly opposed to this," he said.
Chinese students contribute over 11 billion U.S. dollars to the U.S. economy annually, helping sustain university budgets, particularly at public institutions, he said. "More importantly, many of the most successful startups in the U.S. have Chinese founders. Denying them visas means losing out on that potential."
Jin Lan, president of the Oregon China Sister State Relations Council, said the policy deeply concerned him as a former international student. "This decision, taken in the name of national security, weakens the very foundation of America's open academic system -- a system that lies at the heart of its global competitiveness," he said.
Jin warned that if the United States cannot balance openness with security, "the reverse flow of academic talent may become the new norm," shifting the global center of education elsewhere.
He pointed to the Oregon Senate's recent passage of Senate Bill 32, which reaffirms friendly ties with China and continued openness in education. "This demonstrates the American people's goodwill, openness and rationality toward the Chinese people," he said.
Heidi Zhang, director of International Training Programs at California State University, Long Beach, emphasized the value of education exchanges. "They are an important part of people-to-people ties between China and the U.S.," she said. "We've had successful collaborations with many Chinese universities and welcome Chinese students to study here."
Miranda Wilson, contributing editor at the Carter Center's U.S.-China Perception Monitor, depicted the U.S. policy as both "unfair and discriminatory." She warned that the impacts would be immediate and broad.
"If the revocations actually take place, the United States will be losing talent across all fields -- STEM, humanities and social sciences," she said. "Academic exchange should be encouraged, not politicized."
Kuhn said, "Moreover, the irony, in my opinion, is that this action, in the long run, hurts, not helps, the U.S. It will not only discourage talented Chinese students from coming to the U.S., but it will also give pause to other highly talented, young people from other countries."
"The U.S.'s great strength is our education system...Chasing away foreign students undermines America," he noted. ■