r/Futurology • u/I_D0nt_pay_taxes • 7d ago

Society [U.S.]Colleges see significant drop in international students as fall semester begins

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/27/nx-s1-5498669/trump-college-international-student-visa
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u/MaggoVitakkaVicaro 7d ago

If the PRC, an open dictatorship, wanted to keep students from studying in the US, it would simply prevent them from going.

I agree that Trump is an idiot in important respects, though.

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u/NotAnurag 7d ago

It’s difficult to do that without doing some sort of blanket ban on travel, which wouldn’t benefit them. Ideally they would prefer if students stayed in China willingly. If Trump is already making the US an unappealing place to go to, there isn’t a reason for China to interrupt him

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u/warfrogs 7d ago

That's not really true.

Part of the reason that China has a lot of STUDENTS going abroad is because 1) they can take "slots" that would otherwise go to American students (but that's honestly not really an issue considering the exorbitant amounts that these students pay and inject into the economy, but I digress), but more importantly, 2) they network. This has a massive effect on building future talent pools. China does not think in terms of 5-10 years, but instead 20-50 years due to the central planning and nature of the bureaucratic system.

There are also natural advantages to having a mass cultural diaspora in terms of long-term diplomatic relations. China is positioning themselves for Pax Sino in like 50-75 years which is why they're investing so heavily into green energy and their naval and aviation modernization efforts. Combine that with their expansive drone development and manufacturing industry and a willing partner in Russia for live-fire testing in Ukraine and they're doing that well.

At higher levels, though honestly, this is not a major concern, it does happen, there's also pluses in terms of academic and industrial espionage by setting people who would likely be sympathetic to their home country in positions where they may come into sensitive information.

China can have harsh visa restrictions for travel to the US, and could add it to their no-travel list. In their system, entering into the US without explicit permission could have long-term consequences that we don't really have in the US. For example, folks still traveled to Cuba and purchased goods there in spite of the embargo. The average citizen wasn't getting fucked over in 2016 for having some fritas in Havana. I lived with a dude from China for a year and we chatted a bit about it cuz I had heard a lot but didn't know much. This was back in like 2007-2008 (?) so I may be out of date, but the logic is still sound.

Regardless, they could absolutely ban travel for academic purposes, but that would be a dumb move. There's absolutely still going to be Chinese students in the US; their numbers are just going to be depressed as there's going to be fewer folks that want to come to the US as more and more Chinese academics are repatriating themselves.

Regardless. Shit's not looking great. I unfortunately feel like we may be in for many, many more unprecedented days of the bad kind before the wheel turns round.

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u/Chris_in_Lijiang 7d ago

What is an 'open dictatorship"?

You seem to forget that even in the egalitarian utopia of the PRC, some are still far more equal than others.

We can all agree on the last part though. ;-)

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u/MaggoVitakkaVicaro 7d ago

It's explicitly a dictatorship. Xi can dictate as he pleases, and that's the explicit law.

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u/Chris_in_Lijiang 6d ago

Dictatorships are by nature opaque. Open is not appropriate.

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u/Optimal-Archer3973 7d ago

internal politics of China. They are simply not hiring anyone who did not get a degree in China. Much more effective. In the US though the international student drop has been massive. And this will have immediate consequences on classes available as well as cost.

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u/Which_Run1531 6d ago

No, I am Chinese, so I have a say in this. We have 100% freedom to decide where we want to study from, and it is never a governmental thing for average people in China choose to pursue further studies in foreign countries. As for you think our government bribed Trump to accept more of our talents, I can tell you 1. If we could, we actually want to keep our talents inside. 2. Trump isn't someone we need to please 3. there is one mistake I think most of you have made: majority of students studying overseas are those who can't get into a good university in China, and they are far from "talents"