The U.S. weaponization of knowledge against Chinese students

Editor's note: Jiang Shisong, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a research fellow at the School of Law, Chongqing University, in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

In recent years, the United States and several other Western nations have increasingly weaponized science and restricted knowledge flows with China as part of a broader plan to strategically decouple from the rising Asian power. Through aggressive measures such as revoking student visas, banning Chinese researchers, and blacklisting companies, these countries aim to blunt China's scientific progress and innovation capacity across critical areas from artificial intelligence to quantum computing.

However, in doing so, the U.S. does tremendous damage – not just to China, but to themselves and the world. Their actions violate human rights, undermine global collaboration, and jeopardize shared progress on issues from climate change to future pandemics.

The latest developments make this abundantly clear. As described by the Chinese embassy in Washington recently, U.S. authorities have stepped up harassment and outright denial of entry for Chinese students at the border. Those impacted held valid documentation and sought to resume legitimate studies or activities in the U.S. Yet, they faced detention and interrogation focused on extracting their political views or government links. Despite finding no reasonable grounds for suspicion, U.S. officials still canceled visas, restricted movement and communication, and forcibly deported travelers back to China.

U.S. leaders claim national security motivations but fail to provide any evidence to that effect. Six years ago, Donald Trump's administration launched the "China Initiative," meant to deny entry for supposed technology and knowledge thieves. However, years of hunting have yielded almost no actual spying cases, while inflicting enormous collateral damage. Critics note that the initiative often targets individuals based simply on their Chinese ethnicity and links to certain academic fields or institutions. Once caught up in the dragnet, researchers and students face hostility, presumption of guilt, and career turmoil regardless of the outcome. The arbitrariness and scale of the visa revocations – over 1,000 have occurred as of September 2020 – expose the inherently political nature of these knowledge control efforts.

Yet, the U.S. is far from alone in marching down this misguided path as part of a wider push towards comprehensive decoupling from China. Last year, Australian police seized the equipment of a Chinese university scholar and questioned him, which has caused others to hesitate to participate in academic exchanges between the two countries. Canada is also exploring measures to ban Chinese state-affiliated companies from acquiring intellectual property rights. The UK has stripped dozens of Chinese students from sensitive fields of study to prevent the so-called theft of academic research.

Together, these represent short-sighted and counterproductive measures wrapped in the fig leaf of national security. In effect, Western governments aim to obstruct China from translating strong fundamental research into applied innovations and commercial success. They wish to cut off China's access to the world-class talent, skills, and experience concentrated in Western education and business institutions.

However, in reality, China has achieved its impressive progress through dedicated indigenous efforts, not infiltration or theft. Unlike the West's fantasies, its universities, enterprises, and associated talent programs have fueled an increasingly self-driven, sustainable innovation ecosystem. Still, as part of its reform and opening up policy, China has welcomed beneficial collaboration with partners across the world, including those now reprimanding it.

And make no mistake – those headwinds inflict damage not just on China, but even more so on Western countries and the broader global community. Each revoked visa or canceled project represents an acute loss of talent or insight that diminishes shared progress. Chinese graduates contribute hugely to Western labs and startups across most leading disciplines. Joint research initiatives allow cost and skill pooling necessary to crack otherwise impossible barriers. Sino-foreign partnerships have been vital to breakthrough innovations ranging from hybrid rice to cooper-aluminum processing. Killing these links sacrifices critical capacity to solve monumental challenges of future energy, global health, environmental sustainability, and more.

More foundationally, the West's escalatory knowledge weaponization shreds constructs meant to enable shared prosperity through collaboration. It contravenes international education accords guaranteeing non-discrimination. It tears up science cooperation agreements, some over 40 years old, undermining research integrity. It runs counter to UN charters protecting freedom of information flows regardless of frontiers. And perhaps most appallingly, it rides roughshod over inalienable human rights to liberty, safe movement, and career pursuit promised by these nations' founding laws and conventions.

Of course, China recognizes reasonable protections against activities that intentionally illegally transfer cutting-edge technologies to unauthorized parties for hostile advantage. It acknowledges national security, just like any sovereign state. However, one cannot simply hide behind those phrases to justify actions transparently meant to suppress China's legitimate rise overall. And beyond sovereign defenses, individual rights and freedom still matter enormously. Even broader development goals and global interests must be accounted for.

Currently, the West fails miserably on all these counts with its slash-and-burn campaign against Chinese knowledge exchange. Ultimately, it reflects much deeper flaws plaguing these societies – not ones for China to model itself after. From willful science denial to populist insularity, their governance grows incapable of supporting the openness and progress today's world requires. While perhaps temporarily advantaging narrow personal, commercial, or political interests, they inflict lasting damage to larger social welfare.

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