♠ Posted by Emmanuel in
China,
Education,
Trade
at 8/14/2018 05:34:00 PM
 |
| Trump to Chinese students in America: You ain't nuthin' but PRC spies. |
Donald Trump loves a conspiracy theory: Ted Cruz's dad was
involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Global warming is a
hoax invented by the Chinese to make US manufacturing non-competitive. Ever so fond of bashing China in any way, shape or form, a recent gathering of executives from America's largest multinational corporations (and some Trump toadies besides) represented a reversion to Trump's mean. Instead of discussing ways to stop Trump's trade war--fat chance of that--they were instead subjected to another of his
lunatic rantings:
The president entertained a group of 15 CEOs and senior White House
staff at a dinner in the middle of his annual working vacation. The
dinner was billed as “an opportunity for the president to hear how the
economy is doing ... and what their priorities and thoughts are for the
year ahead...”
At one point during the dinner, Trump noted of an unnamed country that
the attendee said was clearly China, “almost every student that comes
over to this country is a spy.”
Unsurprisingly, the United Chinese Americans (UCA) are
up in arms over Trump's racist characterizations. Not that Trump is the only white guy in government insulting Chinese students...
The United Chinese Americans (UCA), a leading federation of Chinese
American organizations across the country, is greatly disturbed by
multiple news reports that, at a private dinner with corporate
executives in New Jersey on August 7, President Donald Trump spoke in alarming terms about Chinese students studying in America as mostly spies for China...
Recent reported remarks by President Trump, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Senator Marco Rubio, who has characterized persons of Chinese origin in the United States
as a national security threat, are unjustified and deeply offensive.
The United Chinese Americans calls on the White House to clarify the
President's reported disparagement of Chinese students.
We also call on the Chinese American community and other Americans of
conscience to contact the White House, their Members of Congress and
their local news media outlets to protest these negative portrayals of
Chinese students. And we call on all Americans to continue the fine
American tradition of welcoming all international students and scholars
to our shores.
Fat chance of that as well for as long as Trump perceives there is political capital to be made from characterizing Chinese students Stateside as spies. There may, however, be economic fallout from this latest bout of Trump's white supremacy. Insofar as Chinese students represent the largest group of international students, payback would be
substantial if these students decided to go elsewhere:
There are more than 350,000
Chinese students studying at U.S. universities -- the largest group of
international students by far -- and Chinese students earned about
10 percent of all doctorates awarded by American universities in 2016.
"Generations of foreign policy leaders agree that international
students and scholars are one of America’s greatest foreign policy
assets," Jill Welch, NAFSA's [National Association of Foreign Student Advisers] deputy executive director for public
policy, said in a statement about what the president reportedly said.
"Blanket generalizations about students from any country will
undoubtedly make international students think twice before choosing the
United States as their destination. If students, particularly from
strategic regions around the world, no longer come here, America will
lose the ability to build relationships with future leaders abroad and
strengthen our own national security."
"Chinese students contribute $12 billion to the U.S. economy,
alongside countless other benefits, so even a modest reduction in
Chinese enrollment would be devastating, and virtually every community
in America would feel the impact if Chinese students decided not to
study in the United States," Welch added. "To make America more secure
and welcoming to international students and scholars the president must
avoid unwelcoming rhetoric and policies. We are already in a global
competition for talent, and students around the world pay close
attention to the policies and rhetoric emanating from the White House.
In order to avoid a further chilling effect in the United States, it is
incumbent upon policy leaders to act boldly and decisively to let
students know that they are welcome here and that we value their
contributions."
For someone presumably wanting to increase American exports, the idiot Trump probably doesn't realize that higher education is its
sixth-largest service export, worth over $43 billion. Already, Trump is
phasing in limits on those studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines over fears that the United States is giving away its competitive edge in these key areas of the future to Communist interlopers. I am 100% certain that discouraging its young people from studying in America is one of the actions that the Chinese government is considering should the US-China trade war get worse. At this rate, don't count such a possibility out by any means.
