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

William C. Kirby

Chapter | The China Questions | 2018

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

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: history; Asia; China; education; higher education; emerging country; international relations; Society; students; globalization; Education; Higher Education; Globalization; International Relations; History; Society; Education Industry; Asia; China; United States;

Format: Print

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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.

Taikang Insurance Group was a leading Chinese insurance and financial services institution. It operated in the insurance, asset management, and health and senior care industries. Due to China’s underdeveloped social welfare state, Taikang saw an opportunity for the private sector to offer a suite of lifelong services that would care for clients “From Cradle to Heaven.” However, as Taikang broadened its brand from life insurance to lifestyle, the potential pitfalls facing the firm would proliferate, too. How could Taikang leverage its scale to ward off competitors? And, crucially, how could Taikang sustain strong relations with the state and regulatory bodies as the company moved into markets with great political sensitivities, such as health services and senior care?

By 2020, Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei, had transformed the small telephone switch manufacturer he founded in 1987 into a $120 billion telecommunications company poised to lead the lucrative rollout of fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks. However, an emerging U.S.-China tech war has jeopardized Huawei’s prospects. The Trump administration is waging a global campaign to blacklist doing business with Huawei due to concerns in Washington about the company’s relationship with the Chinese government and the security of its products. As Huawei attempts to answer the litany of questions being asked about its business, the company’s corporate communications and government relations strategies are thrust onto center stage. How can a company so successful technologically—it is a global leader in 5G technology—struggle so mightily in telling its story? What would it take for Huawei to repair its relationship with Washington? Can Huawei protect itself from the crossfire of a growing digital cold war between the U.S. and China?

After the legendary founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) retired, the new chairman had to grapple with fresh challenges related to its China market: a recently opened factory in China had to find ways to reverse its financial loss and meet its full capacity, one of its major Chinese customers was facing sanctions by the U.S. government, and China was investing billions of dollars in building its own powerhouse to compete in semiconductor production. The transition from 4G to 5G technology in the telecommunication industry as well as the U.S.-China trade war added to the uncertainties facing TSMC. What had changed in the competitive landscape for TSMC, and how should it respond to the changes? What were the options for the company in doing business with China, when the country had become both a customer and a competitor?

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

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