Graduate Students and the U.S. China Initiative

Abstract

AbstractThe 2018 China Initiative systematically targeted international Chinese scholars as possible spies for China. Previous research demonstrated ways that the China Initiative engaged in racial profiling, resulting in scholars of Chinese descent feeling unwelcomed in U.S. higher education institutions and insecure in their engagement as researchers. Graduate students were not exempt. This study explores the nuanced ways that Chinese graduate students felt discriminated against and racially profiled in comparison to their non-Chinese peers during the height of the U.S. China Initiative. Additionally, this research assesses how those experiences impacted students’ future educational mobility plans. As international Chinese enrollments in the United States are declining, our study seeks to identify the factors that may be contributing to this trend.