US-China relations may be worsening, but young Americans still welcome the chance to work in world’s No 2 economy

Name: Beijing students protest Covid-19 curbs on campus in rare act of defiance
Uploaded: 2022-05-26T20:30:18.000Z
Duration: 1 min 38 s
Description: Beijing students protest Covid-19 curbs on campus in rare act of defiance

The pandemic has motivated expatriates to leave China and restricted others from entering due to quarantine periods of up to three weeks

But the world’s No 2 economy still has appeal for a new generation of young Americans, and multinationals need Mandarin-speaking foreigners

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Students and young white-collar Westerners poured into China in the two decades before the coronavirus. Photo: AFP

Ralph Jenningsin Berkeley, California

Published: 4:30am, 27 May 2022Updated: 9:34am, 27 May 2022

Kush Davidd, a third-year student at the University of California, knows about the coronavirus lockdowns in Shanghai and China’s political friction with the United States. But the 20-year-old American is studying Mandarin, and would still consider a job in China if offered.

“I’m sure Covid will clear up,” said Davidd, who is double majoring in economics and computer science at the university’s Berkeley campus. He imagines taking a computer science job in China that pays one and a half times more than one in the US.

“China in the future – although not better overall, the opportunities there are better than in the US.”

His outlook on employment in China is shared by others across his campus of 45,000 students. They say they would go for the pay, the travel perks and the adventure of living in a country unlike their own.

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Beijing students protest Covid-19 curbs on campus in rare act of defiance

Their interest could rekindle the flow of young white-collar Westerners that poured into China in the two decades before the coronavirus. Since then, the pandemic has motivated expatriates to leave and restricted others from entering due to quarantine periods of up to three weeks.