For bright young minds in China and US, curiosity and pragmatism outpace nationalism, distrust
- Interviews with students from top American and Chinese schools contradict assumptions about their views of the other nation and geopolitical ties
- After US trip, Tsinghua students express nuanced opinions, saying there is much China can learn from America and acknowledging shared concerns
Yang’s first day in the US did not go as planned. Upon landing, Yang and four of his classmates were stopped for secondary questioning by border security.
Yang, who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his privacy, was part of a group of 14 Chinese Tsinghua University students on a two-week trip to cultural institutions, universities and think tanks on the US East Coast this summer. The university-organised tour was the first post-pandemic trip of its kind, and for most of the students, their first journey to the US.
A recent graduate of Tsinghua’s quantum computing programme, Yang was held for three hours in what he described as a deeply uncomfortable experience.
Yet he says he left the US very hopeful for bilateral cooperation and does not rule out future study in the US.
Overall, while acknowledging that he had seen only a sliver of some of the country’s most cosmopolitan cities, he said he saw “a real United States” with “warm-hearted and passionate people” – a contrast to the negative images he and his classmates often see in the media.
Though there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese students currently in the US, the Tsinghua group represents those who have thus far chosen to stay in the Chinese system, and whose place at one of China’s most elite universities positions them to join the country’s future leaders.