Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2018
  • Chapter
  • The China Questions

Why Do So Many Chinese Students Come to the United States?

By: William C. Kirby
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Many books offer information about China, but few make sense of what is truly at stake. The questions addressed in this unique volume provide a window onto the challenges China faces today and the uncertainties its meteoric ascent on the global horizon has provoked.

In only a few decades, the most populous country on Earth has moved from relative isolation to center stage. Thirty-six of the world’s leading China experts—all affiliates of the renowned Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University—answer key questions about where this new superpower is headed and what makes its people and their leaders tick. They distill a lifetime of cutting-edge scholarship into short, accessible essays about Chinese identity, culture, environment, society, history, or policy.

Can China’s economic growth continue apace? Can China embrace the sacrifices required for a clean environment? Will Taiwan reunite with the mainland? How do the Chinese people understand their position in today’s global marketplace? How do historical setbacks and traditional values inform China’s domestic and foreign policy? Some of the essays address issues of importance to China internally, revolving around the Communist Party’s legitimacy, the end of the one-child policy, and ethnic tensions. Others focus on China’s relationship with other nations, particularly the United States. If America pulls back from its Asian commitments, how will China assert its growing strength in the Pacific region?

China has already captured the world’s attention. The China Questions takes us behind media images and popular perceptions to provide insight on fundamental issues.

Keywords

Asia; China; Emerging Country; Students; Education; Higher Education; Globalization; International Relations; History; Society; Education Industry; Asia; China; United States

Citation

Kirby, William C. "Why Do So Many Chinese Students Come to the United States?" Chap. 27 in The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power, edited by Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, 219–230. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

About The Author

William C. Kirby

General Management
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • June 1, 2025
    • Boston Globe

    How Universities Die: It Has Happened Before in Centers of Learning Such as Berlin and Beijing. Is Boston Next?

    By: William C. Kirby
    • January 2025 (Revised March 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    DJI- Striving for Innovation Amid Contestation

    By: William C. Kirby and Daniel Fu
    • January 2025 (Revised February 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    A High-Tech Revolution with Chinese Characteristics: China's Drive Towards EV Supremacy

    By: William C. Kirby, Daniel Fu and Matthew Ngai
More from the Author
  • How Universities Die: It Has Happened Before in Centers of Learning Such as Berlin and Beijing. Is Boston Next? By: William C. Kirby
  • DJI- Striving for Innovation Amid Contestation By: William C. Kirby and Daniel Fu
  • A High-Tech Revolution with Chinese Characteristics: China's Drive Towards EV Supremacy By: William C. Kirby, Daniel Fu and Matthew Ngai
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.