Americans studying in China are safe despite US travel advisory, scholars say

The State Department is urged to clarify its advisory for China and explain who exactly is at risk, since ‘they don’t tend to be students or scholars’

Calls to ease US travel warning come as both sides stress people-to-people exchanges, including Xi Jinping and Joe Biden at their meeting in November

3-MIN READ3-MIN

US-China people-to-people exchanges should be increased, scholars at a Washington think tank said on Thursday. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:30am, 29 Mar 2024Updated: 5:58am, 29 Mar 2024

American students in China have not experienced significant threats to their safety, and the US State Department must make its travel advisory for the country more specific, scholars said on Thursday.

“There are people for whom going to China is risky [but] they don’t tend to be students or scholars,” said Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, during a launch event at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies for a new report on US-China scholarly “recoupling”.

“And so we need a more specific travel advisory” to clarify the high-risk groups, she continued, noting that US universities are afraid to send students to China given the current advisory for mainland China.

Set to “level three” on a four-level risk scale, the State Department designation urges visitors to “reconsider travel” and cites an arbitrary enforcement of local laws, “including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions”.

The department has not provided public estimates of numbers of Americans experiencing exit bans or wrongful detentions, while safety concerns have plagued students, businesses and even tourists considering travels to China.