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the articles for length and clarity. Inquiry: (8610) 65367563EDITORIAL
14
Monday September 2, 2019
By Shi TianNine Arizona State University (ASU)
undergraduate students from China,
returning to the school for the new
semester, were detained at Los Ange-
les International Airport, according
to a university statement on Friday.
No detailed information has yet
been provided by US Customs and
Border Protection, but school offi-
cials have confirmed the students’
academic eligibility to return to the
university and to the US under their
visas. ASU President Michael Crow
said “the students were in possession
of all needed documentation to enter
the US,” and university spokesman
Jerry Gonzalez said “the detentions
were not based on allegations of aca-
demic dishonesty.”
Is the US still a good destination
for Chinese students to study abroad?
With this case, the question merits
the consideration of every Chinese
family with such a plan.
Amid increasing tensions between
the two countries, the US is trying
hard to decouple from China, not
only in trade but in almost every other
domain. With its frequent moves ineducational and cultural exchanges,
such an intention is getting clearer.
A couple of days before the in-
cident involving ASU students, a
20-year-old Chinese student was re-
patriated in Detroit airport and had
his visa cancelled as he had a body ar-
mor in his luggage entering the US, a
country where shootings are increas-
ingly commonplace.
And according to the China
Scholarship Council, China in 2018
planned to fund 10,313 students to
study in the US, and 331 (3.2 per-
cent) failed to enter the US due to
visa problems. In the first quarter of
2019, the rate soared to 13.5 percent.
A high percentage of Chinese
families are planning to send their
children to study abroad. The US,
mastering advanced educational re-
sources, has always been a favored
destination. Some parents even in-
vest heavily in houses near campus
in the US to provide access for their
kids to prestigious US school from an
early age. In the 2017/2018 academicyear, more than 360,000 Chinese
students were studying in the US
universities, accounting for one-third
of the country’s foreign students and
bringing about $13.9 billion worth of
economic benefits.
But is it worth it? The US is chang-
ing dramatically and so are China-US
relations. Chinese should get ready
for the potential risks of living and
studying in the US. Given recent
cases, the whole educational plan that
a family prepares for a child might
be smashed at the arbitrary and cold
whim of a US immigration officer.
China has always hoped to en-
hance people-to-people exchange
and to ease tensions between the
two sides, but cooperation can by
no means be built based on unilat-
eral willingness. In such a context,
Chinese people should really be well
aware and well prepared for the US
decoupling. In particular, students
planning to study abroad should
think twice before making a life-
changing decision.Voices
“We want to, and we will,
remember. And we will bear
the responsibility that our
history imposes upon us.”
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German
president,
asking Poland’s forgiveness for history’s bloodiest
conflict during a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun,
where the first World War II bomb fell 80 years ago,
quoted by AFP on Sunday.
“The US had better not put
our patience to the test any
longer with such remarks
irritating us if it doesn’t
want to have bitter regrets
afterward.”
Choe Son-hui, North Korea’s first vice
foreign minister,
saying a recent remark by US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo about “North Korea’s rogue behavior” will make
talks more difficult with the US, quoted by Reuters on
Sunday.
Is studying in US still a good choice for Chinese students?
O
BSERVER
Page Editor:
[email protected]Illustration: Liu Rui/GTUS shoots Americans in the foot
T
he US imposed fresh tariffs of
15 percent on $125 billion of
Chinese imports starting mid-
night Sunday. China applied new tar-
iffs ranging from 5 to 10 percent on the
first batch of $75 billion US goods on
the same day as a countermeasure. As
the US is bent on provocation, the US-
launched trade war against China has
once again escalated.
However, the new wave of tariffs is a
turning point in the trade war.
First, a vast majority of ordinary US
families will directly face the impact of
tariffs on imported Chinese goods. The
Chinese products range from smart
watches, shoes, diapers, sporting goods
to meat and dairy products, all closely
bound up in daily American life.
The Washington DC-based PetersonInstitute for International Econom-
ics estimated in a report on August 14
that the US September 1 duties will hit
77 percent of the country’s clothing
imports from China and 45 percent
of footwear. “For the first time, [US
President Donald] Trump’s trade war
is likely to directly raise prices for a lot
of household budget items,” the report
said.
Second, Washington is almost at
the end of its wits. It is clear about the
consequences of rising tariffs on daily
consumer goods and had been trying
to avoid targeting these products. How-
ever, the US underestimated China’s
resilience in the trade war. Therefore,
Washington would rather damage itself
now in an attempt to make China sur-
render.Third, growing voices against the
trade war have been emerging in the
US. There is unprecedented opposi-
tion in US public opinion to Washing-
ton’s sudden move of going back on
its own word by imposing more tariffs
on Chinese products. Even some cabi-
net members who are tough on China
do not support the fresh tariffs. Not to
mention the US industries.
It is worthy of attention that main-
stream Western media outlets have
been highlighting the latest tariffs’
damage to Americans, implicitly or
explicitly pointing out that Washing-
ton’s paranoid trade war is becoming
increasingly unpopular. The Trump
administration acts as if it doesn’t care
about these voices, but it actually does,
especially when the 2020 election cam-paign is underway. Washington dares
not go against mainstream public opin-
ion in the US.
Fourth, the US economy cannot
sustain its superficial prosperity and is
facing a bigger risk of decline. US GDP
growth was 2.1 percent in the second
quarter of 2019, 1 percentage point low-
er than the first quarter. The trade war’s
impact on US imports and exports be-
comes more and more apparent.
This is the result of Washington’s
own action and of Beijing’s resolute re-
sistance under the former’s maximum
pressure.
The Trump administration has shot
Americans in the foot. When more and
more Americans feel the pain, maybe it
will be time for Washington to recover
rationality.