Virginia Postrel, Columnist

Banning Chinese STEM Students Would Backfire on U.S.

The net flow of talent and knowledge goes eastward across the Pacific, and China struggles to get scientists to return home. Why make that job easier?

May 28, 2020 at 9:00 PM UTC

By Virginia Postrel

Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University and author, most recently, of “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.”

Knowledge flows favor the U.S.
Photographer: Natalie/iStockphoto

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China hawks in Washington are looking for ways to weaken an increasingly aggressive geopolitical rival. Unfortunately, one of their shiny new ideas instead attacks a major U.S. strategic and cultural advantage: the excellence of American science.

Particularly at the graduate level, U.S. universities attract the brightest minds from all over the world, with China, the world’s most populous country, sending the most students. In the 2018-19 school year, more than 171,000 Chinese nationals were enrolled in science and engineering programs at U.S. universities, followed by 155,000 Indians. The coronavirus pandemic may change that in the short run, although a March survey by the Institute of International Education found that all but 0.4 percent of Chinese students were still in the U.S. Over the long run, immigration policy and public attitudes matter more.