I have worked with several Chinese scientists, one of whom became a close friend. It’s well-known that Chinese culture has maintained a respect for learning for thousands of years.
Here is one example of the dire effect of expelling a Chinese-American scientist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/opinion/visas-china-rockets-scientist-technology.html
The U.S. Deported This Chinese Scientist, in a Decision That Changed World History
By Kathleen Kingsbury, The New York Times, May 30, 2025
In 1950, though it didn’t know it yet, the American government held one of the keys to winning the Cold War: Qian Xuesen, a brilliant Chinese rocket scientist who had already transformed the fields of aerospace and weaponry. In the halls of the California Institute of Technology and M.I.T., he had helped solve the riddle of jet propulsion and developed America’s first guided ballistic missiles. He was made a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, worked on the top-secret Manhattan Project and was sent to Germany to interrogate enemy scientists. Dr. Qian wanted the first man in space to be American — and was designing a rocket to make it happen.
Then he was stopped short. At the height of his career, there came a knock at the door, and he was handcuffed in front of his wife and young son. Prosecutors would eventually clear Dr. Qian of charges of sedition and espionage, but the United States deported him anyway — traded back to Communist Beijing in a swap for about a dozen American prisoners of war in 1955.
The implications of that single deportation are staggering: Dr. Qian returned to China and immediately persuaded Mao Zedong to put him to work building a modern weapons program. By the decade’s end, China tested its first missile. By 1980, it could rain them down on California or Moscow with equal ease. Dr. Qian wasn’t just rightly christened the father of China’s missile and space programs; he set in motion the technological revolution that turned China into a superpower… [end quote]
Many of the top U.S. tech companies were founded by immigrants who trained in science in the U.S.
Foreign students who train in the U.S. are valuable human resources. We should provide them with inducements to become American citizens, like my friend.
Targeting Chinese Students Threatens the Bottom Line at American Universities
Trump administration’s move to revoke visas could poke holes in university finances and U.S. talent pipeline
By Shen Lu, Liyan Qi and Ming Li, The Wall Street Journal
Key Points
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The Trump administration’s plan to revoke visas for Chinese students could hurt U.S. universities’ finances and talent pool.
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Chinese students, especially undergraduates who typically pay full tuition, are a key revenue source for U.S. universities.
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The majority of Chinese students study in STEM fields, and they often stay in the U.S. after graduation.
A Trump administration announcement Wednesday that it would “aggressively” begin revoking visas for Chinese students confronts universities across the U.S. with the prospect of a hit to their finances and talent pool…
Typically, Chinese undergraduates pay full tuition, a critical source of revenue for universities.
One in every four international students comes from China, and Chinese students form a particularly large share of the student body at top U.S. schools. After they graduate, many assume key roles in U.S. science and engineering endeavors.
A big decline in Chinese enrollment could severely cut into schools’ bottom line and damage U.S. competitiveness, say U.S. experts…
In 2023, 83% of the Chinese STEM graduates who obtained their doctoral degrees between 2017 and 2019 were still in the U.S., well above the average rate… [end quote]
The article focuses on the hit to the income of top universities with large Chinese full-pay student populations.
But I think the biggest hit will be to the U.S. Macro economy in the long term. Does the Trump administration really think Chinese students have nowhere else to study? How about China? How about Europe?
We will lose these hard-working contributors to the U.S. economy.
Insane.
Wendy (holding head in hands)
