China no longer top source of international students in US, political atmosphere, opportunities at home among reasons: expert

File photo shows an aerial view of Manhattan in New York City, the United States. (Photo/Xinhua)

While India and China still make up over half of all international students in the US, India has overtaken China as the top source for international students in the US for the first time in about 15 years, according to new data released on Monday.

A total of 331,602 Indians studied in the US during the 2023-24 school year, compared with 277,398 Chinese, according to the latest annual survey by the Institute of International Education (IIE), a report sponsored by the US State Department. Indian students saw a 23 percent increase from the previous academic year, while Chinese students saw a 4 percent decrease.

Chinese students had been the largest foreign group since the 2009-10 school year, but their numbers have steadily declined from 2019-20 onward, South China Morning Post reported.

Experts attribute the decline in the number of Chinese students in the US to factors including a hostile political atmosphere, harassment by US security personnel against Chinese students, and increasing opportunities in China.

The unfriendly narratives and specific measures the US government has adopted in recent years, such as the so-called China Initiative, targeting Chinese students and scholars in the US, have led to a decrease in the number of Chinese students studying there to a certain extent, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday. The so-called "China Initiative" was launched by the US Justice Department in 2018 to probe trade secret theft and economic espionage activities considered threats to US national security.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in January that the US has long been wantonly suppressing and ill-treating Chinese students traveling to the US with lawful and valid identifications and visas. Some of the students were interrogated, confined, forced into confession, induced and even deported without just cause. Every month for the past few months, the US deported dozens of Chinese arriving in the US, including students.

The shift in rankings, in line with student visa data from the Department of Homeland Security, comes amid heightened anxiety from Chinese nationals in the US after the presidential election, according to an SCMP report. Donald Trump's first term saw numerous restrictions on travel and immigration, including a presidential proclamation to limit the entry of graduate students and researchers from China, according to the report.

Chinese observers noted that the increasing number of opportunities in China has provided Chinese students with a growing number of choices, which also contributes to the decline of Chinese students in the US.

Even though the China Initiative has been halted in 2022, the hostile atmosphere continues. In June, Kurt Campbell, US Deputy Secretary of State and the second-ranked US diplomat, said that the US needed to recruit more international students for those fields, but from India - an increasingly important US security partner - not China, Reuters reported.

The US recognizes India as the largest country in terms of population, and in Washington's strategic scheme, they regard India as a significant player that could balance against China in the future, which is why the US has expressed its interest in attracting India, including students from India, Lü said.

Chinese students contribute irreplaceably to basic scientific research in the US, said Lü, and the US should recognize that universities are for basic scientific research and should be for all humanity with no national boundaries.