Chinese Students in America Policies, Issues, and Numbers (1988) / Chapter Skim
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1. The Evolving Policies
1. The Evolving Policies
Pages 19-35
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From page 19... ...
Unfortunately, there were too many obstacles to be overcome and the modernization goals remained unfulfilled. For a country the size of China, the number of students was too small and too concentrated in the large coastal cities; internal politics and foreign wars inevitably interrupted and disrupted what steps may have been taken in modernizing the economy and the body politic; and, while seeking knowledge from abroad, the Chinese leaders (and, for that 1See, for example, Mary Brown Bullock, "American Exchanges with China Revisited," in Joyce K
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From page 20... ...
Moscow recalled all its specialists from China and, although a small number of Chinese students stayed on in the Soviet Union through the mid-1960s, for all practical purposes this was also the end of educational exchanges between the two countries not to be resumed until the 1980~. As a postscript, it should be noted that in the case of the Soviet Union it would be surprising if a single Chinese student was lost to Brain drain."3 Disillusioned with the political costs of Soviet assistance, and despite limited economic relations with Japan and some of the Western European countries, in the 1960s Mao made China into a near-recluse country by embarking on a long period" in which self-sufficiency and 2 This general-use figure reported by Soviet sources and early Chinese publications has now been supplemented by more precise statistics published by the Chinese.
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From page 21... ...
link in the relationship between the United States and China. By 4According to Huang, during 1964-1966 the Ministry of Education drew up a three-year plan to send 2,000 students abroad to study foreign languages; between 1972 and 1976, 1,629 students were sent abroad (Huang, "A Chinese View," p.
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From page 22... ...
, it is safe to assume that when new policies and directives on sending students abroad are considered, it is the United States which is uppermost in the minds of Chinese leaders. RESUMING THE EXCHANGES China's post-Mao decision to resume the sending of students abroad for study other than language was made in June 1978 and was undoubtedly hastened by the ambitious plans for scientific development announced at the National Science Conference held in Beijing in March of that year.
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From page 23... ...
Nevertheless, the importance of academic exchanges in the normalization process can be appreciated by the fact that the Understanding on Educational Exchanges, an agreement that provided for study and research by undergraduate students, graduate students, and visiting scholars, was signed in the fall of 1978- even prior to the establishment of diplomatic relations in January 1979, when it was incorporated into the much broader Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology. The current Accord for Educational Exchanges was signed, after much negotiation, in July 1985 and its principles form the basis for all official educational exchanges between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
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From page 24... ...
in 1978 and 1979, only 420 (less than a fifth) were undergraduates, 180 were graduate students, and the rest were researchers or scholars.9 In general, there was no carefully thought-out policy in those early years for sending students abroad just a natural extension of the broad-based national goal of modernization and opening up to the West.
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From page 25... ...
EXPERIENCE AND CHANGE Naturally, the experiences of Chinese students and scholars sent abroad were studied by the governmental and academic entities involved in foreign education. The review process was continuous, but many of the problems and decisions with regard to sending people abroad were discussed and summarized at periodic national conferences.
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From page 26... ...
First, all were reminded that sending students and scholars abroad was not a short-term policy but one that would continue indefinitely~3uggesting that scholarly intercourse with other nations was considered vital to China's long-term modernization goals and not just a temporary, stopgap measure; and second, it was pointed out that, although of necessity in 1980 most of those going abroad were mid-career scholars, in the future most would be graduate students. This transition took several years but, as we shall see, it is now being implemented.
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From page 27... ...
specifically that the principles, targets, problems, and other issues relating to the sending of students abroad were of great concern to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and that members of these bodies held periodic meetings "to discuss and guide the program." Perhaps as a consequence of decisions made at the November conference, in early January 1985 the State Council published a set of regulations that, although not too different from earlier directives, marked a somewhat more liberal phase in facilitating foreign training for any individual who was able to "obtain financial support or scholarships in foreign exchange and the necessary enrollment papers." Such individuals could apply to study abroad at any academic level, whether as undergraduates or as advanced scholars, "irrespective of school record, age, or duration of employment."44 The regulations guaranteed passports not only for students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, but also for individuals already in the work force. The process was further facilitated by the establishment of an office at the Beijing I,anguages Institute, which would provide consultations to students intending to study abroad.
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From page 28... ...
He noted that in 1985 there was a sharp increase in the number of students taking the TOEFL examination to study abroad on their own.~5 Students expended so much energy in making the right contacts (e.g., approaching foreign scholars visiting their universities) and on foreign language study that their other courses were adversely affected.
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From page 29... ...
"There are no plans to curb the rise in applications for foreign study and research, said the deputy minister, because this program ~ "in line with the country's policy of opening to the outside worId.~2iNevertheless, reports that Chinese authorities were considering steps to cut back or cut off privately sponsored study abroad persisted and fueled the urgency to get out before any policy changes might be Instituted. It ~ easy to see how the confusion in China would spread to foreign institutions of higher education, where uncertainty was also a problem for university administrators and other officials involved with Chinese students.
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From page 30... ...
And second, the units will be able to enter into an agreement with the person sent abroad, in which both parties will have a clear idea of their responsibilities, liabilities, and rights. (A recent dispatch from Beijing, published in the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
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From page 31... ...
On the one hand, he procIanned that the government will not stand in their way and that they will receive "the same solicitude and care" as the government-sponsored students; on the other hand, he introduced a number of exceptions. More effort wid be made, he said, "to guide and control" sel£supporting students "so that their selection and dispatch will conform to state requirements, meet certain goals, and be carried out in a planned way." In fact, the suggested controls apply primarily to graduate students enrolled in Chinese universities, who "cannot apply for permission to go abroad to study at their own expense." Without such a restriction, according to Liu, graduate students would drop out of schools, crush abroad," and upset the existing plans and quotas for domestic postgraduate education.
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From page 32... ...
In early April 1988, Huang Xinbai, a member of the State Education Commission, addressed the students' concern by stating that China's policy of sending students abroad "remains unchanged and 24Xinhua, June 10, 1987; JPRS-CAR-87-024, July 23, 1987, p.
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From page 33... ...
First, Chinese students in the United States have had a tendency to be overly sensitive to every decree or rumor emanating from home and, not surprisingly, translate them immediately in terms of their own personal and professional concerns. And second, although theoretically the State Education Commission is the officially designated agency to oversee the sending of students abroad, it admits that all it can provide is guidance and suggestions and that it has no way of controlling students sent by other ministries and organizations.
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From page 34... ...
Nor did it help that offspring of high-level officials seemed unencumbered by the rules and had littie difficulty in going abroad for both undergraduate and graduate degrees.26 Despite adverse publicity, it appears that this practice did not disappear completely and rumor has it that new regulations will be introduced regarding senior cadres' children studying abroad at their own expense.27 Moreover, decentralized funding patterns both 26See, for example, David Wang and Ian Chung, "Who Gets To Study Abroad,n Hong Kong Standard, Nov.
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From page 35... ...
It is not surprising, therefore, that so many prospective students for foreign education are confused, nervous, and perplexed about their future. What seems clear is that as long as the "study-abroad fever" continues and the current mood and attitudes persist, the ingenious Chinese youth will inevitably be searching for (and often finding)
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