I wonder why the decline in Chinese student enrollment in US universities is a hot topic, while the decline of US students studying in China is not.

Chinese enrollment in the US has declined by perhaps 15% to about 300,000 this year. As of 2020, the number of US students studying in China fell from a recent average of 11,000 per year to only 2,500. And an article cited on the US Embassy website said that as of last fall the number of US students in China had fallen to about 300. I can no longer find that webpage, but this claim seems unbelievable anyway.

Nevertheless, when combined with China’s crackdown on English language instruction, it appears that China’s intent to wall itself off from the West is even stronger than the US intent to wall itself off from China.

As of January 8, 2023, one expert in this field said that “we have no reports of Chinese language students going to China successfully.” (https://www.china-admissions.com/blog/update-covid-and-online-classes/). This statement was made in the context of students who wish to study in China for less than six months, but the numbers for full-time degree candidates are not much better.

Anyhow, I cannot think of a logical scientific basis behind China’s policy of excluding fully vaccinated students who have gone through quarantine and who have tested negative for the virus.

They must have another objective. I wonder what it is and why nobody talks about it. But whatever that reason might be, it is clear that if the purpose is to exclude foreign students for no good reason, the US has again fallen woefully behind.