THE CHINESE QUESTION

PLACE OF BIRTH IS NOT A CHOICE

Current U.S. /China tensions, and Covid 19 have renewed anti-Chinese sentiment in the US. China’s economy is the second largest in the world and growing rapidly, potentially surpassing that of the US in the future. In the beginning of 2025, the US has been in debt to China for approximately $860 billion, making it the second-largest foreign holder, after Japan.

Chinese people have immigrated to the U.S. for many reasons. Today about 5.6 million Chinese Americans citizens live in the US, as well as 2.4 million Chinese immigrants. In 1865-1869 the U.S. used Chinese immigrant labor to build the western part of the transcontinental railroad. After that, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 outlawed Chinese immigration for ten years, extended for another ten years. Now in 2025 DHS has deported planeloads of Chinese nationals without court hearings.

In May 2025 Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration would work to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students. Nearly two months later, Mr. Trump shocked his conservative allies when he said he would let 600,000 Chinese students into American universities. (NYT Sept 14, 2025) Chinese nationals make up approximately a fourth of all international students in the U.S.

Benefits of Chinese immigrants are many. In science alone, they have contributed, for example, to the development of Quantum Theory, the space race, N95 masks, antiviral therapy, HIV research, in-vitro fertilization, and U-Tube. Steven Chu won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1997.

This year the administration restricted travel from 19 countries; paused student visa screening interviews for three weeks while it revamped procedures; canceled thousands of visas for students who had been accused of crimes or overstaying their visits; and is trying to deport students for protesting the Israel-Gaza war. Despite that, foreign student enrollment in US universities is down by less than one percent. Foreign students still want to study in this country.