Sharing the moonlight far apart

Editor's note: Wang Yan, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is the director of the Chinese Society of Education Developmental Strategy. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

To Chinese people, the Mid-Autumn Festival is an incredibly important day for family gatherings, when the children, no matter how far away, tend to travel home for celebrations with their parents under the fullest moon of the year. It symbolizes complete happiness when "people and the moon reunite to form a full circle."

This year, people in China are enjoying a three-day mid-autumn holiday. The university students who study outside their hometown can use this opportunity to go home or travel for sightseeing with their parents.

Nonetheless, those who study abroad cannot get together with their families as most of them are in the middle of a semester and live in cultures without the tradition of observing the mid-autumn festival.

As the old Chinese saying goes, "when the child is away, the mother will pray." Instead of enjoying moonlight and mooncakes on this day, tens of thousands of parents of overseas students will pray for the wellbeing of their children. Connecting through social media and instant messaging apps such as WeChat cannot replace the joy of meeting in person and having dinner at the same table.

Why do the parents pray? It originates from consanguinity or the bond of blood, but deeper concerns arise from changes in the environments in which their children are living. The unfavorable policies, geopolitical tensions and even incidents that occurred to Chinese students and scholars might ripple into families' celebrations on the Mid-Autumn Day.

The United States has been the top study-abroad destination for Chinese students. There were around 290,000 Chinese studying in the U.S. as of January 2024, accounting for about one-third of the total number of international students in that country. Not only have American universities benefited from the influx of talented Chinese students and researchers, but also other international students coming to the U.S. for higher education have had a significant positive economic impact on the United States. It has been estimated that international students contributed $45 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Nonetheless, things have been changing. Over the last few years, the number of inbound students from China to the United States has kept on dropping from 372,532 in 2019/2020 to 289,526 in 2022/2023, a substantial decrease even in the rebound after the pandemic.

Why was there such a decrease? According to empirical analysis, the mobility pattern and international student flow are usually associated with the quality of programs and institutions, and government policies to encourage cross-border mobility for education and employment prospects.

Unfortunately, the barrier for Chinese students to study in the United States has been raised rather than lowered. In May 2020, the White House issued a proclamation barring Chinese graduate students and researchers from studying or working at U.S. universities if they previously had been affiliated with certain Chinese institutions that "implement or support" China's military-civil fusion strategy. Soon after, a law was enacted in the state of Florida, thwarting the faculties at Florida's public universities who want to hire Chinese graduate students and postdocs to work in their labs. These steps, together with other unfavorable policies, have generated a negative impact on student mobility from China into the United States.

On the other hand, the cost of living in the United States, already more than double that of the world average, increased by 3.2 percent in 2023. The tightening labor market and increasing unemployment rate has also affected the students' confidence in their career prospects after studying in the United States.

In contrast, the United Kingdom has seen an increase of international or foreign students from 489,019 in 2019 to 605,130 in 2020/2021, hitting its target of 600,000 international students almost a decade earlier than hoped. The majority of non-EU students in the UK come from China. This might be explained by the more stable bilateral relationship as well as the difference in international student policies from those of the United States.

Furthermore, while studying in the United States costs approximately two million yuan ($282,000) for undergraduate study on average, it will take over 10 years to recover those costs if the graduates can secure a decent-paying job. Therefore, Chinese students are increasingly making choices with a better rate of return. For example, they are choosing Asian countries such as Singapore which offer quality education or less costly though farther away destinations such as the Latin America and Caribbean region. The trend is mostly likely going to continue unless new programs are created in the United States that foster a welcoming environment for Chinese researchers and students.

Years ago, students went abroad to further their studies from economically more developed countries. Now with technological developments, students can access courses and programs through a great variety of learning modes, especially online. The purpose of study has changed: Apart from gaining knowledge and skills, achieving global competency is also an important objective, i.e. the ability to communicate, interact and work with people from different cultures. Towards that end, the students and their parents tend to choose an environment that values shared interests, prosperity, and innovation.

In an age of existential challenges and transformative technologies, maintaining robust educational exchanges is a necessary investment in a peaceful and prosperous future, enabling both China and the United States to navigate the complexities of modern geopolitics in the pursuit of knowledge and the service of humanity.

Turning these words into action warrants specific steps such as easing visa restrictions for students and scholars, creating new joint research projects, and establishing high-level dialogues on educational cooperation, which showcase a genuine commitment to rebuilding trust and promoting mutual understanding through educational exchanges.

Hopefully, through such actions, students from China, the United States and other countries can strive towards the common goal of building a more peaceful and beautiful world.

When that time comes, no matter how far apart the parents and children are, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, looking up at the moon, they will be able to celebrate the peace, joy and hope for life together.

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