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US-China relations
China

US Peace Corps’ exit from China cuts valued channel of Sino-American dialogue

  • Agency that broke down nationalistic barriers and stereotypes through English-language teaching ends its China programme after 26 years
  • Participants from both countries lament the loss of a cultural and educational exchange, with Beijing and Washington locked in escalating rivalry

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The US Peace Corps’ China programme began in what was considered a golden age of exchange between the countries. Photo: Instagram
Simone McCarthy
As conflicts over trade, technology and civil liberties dominate US-China relations, a long-standing cultural and educational bridge between the two countries has been quietly dismantled with the US Peace Corps ending its operations in China.
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Each summer since 1993, Peace Corps volunteers have flown into the Chinese city of Chengdu ready to fill English-language teaching positions across the country’s west, as part of an initiative to promote understanding between citizens of the two countries. This year that won’t be happening.

The programme will be phased out because of “many significant changes in China over the past 26 years”, according to a statement released in February by the independent government agency’s Washington headquarters.

The Covid-19 pandemic uprooted Peace Corps operations globally, with volunteers recalled from more than 60 countries where it runs programmes. But in the case of China, the evacuation is a permanent shutdown that volunteers say could not have come at a worse time.

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“I’m worried now that both in the United States and China, the nationalism and anger between the sides might go too far, to the point that it’s going to be difficult to create a dialogue in the future,” said Austin Frenes, a Californian whose two years in the Peace Corps ended early in February because of Covid-19.

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