No one is able to reverse the trend of history
By
Zhong Sheng
Washington recently betrayed its public promises, imposing
unreasonable visa restriction on Chinese students and researchers.
To force the implementation of the policy that has been
widely criticized by Americans, the White House groundlessly accused Chinese
students and researchers, relating them with technology theft, spying, and
security risks.
Such a practice is purely political persecution and
racial discrimination, and seriously violates the legitimate rights and
interests of the Chinese students and researchers in the U.S., placing
extremely negative impacts on the normal people-to-people and cultural
exchanges between China and the U.S.
The White House’s lies to stigmatize Chinese students
and researchers are absurd. Officials acknowledged there was no direct evidence
that pointed to wrongdoing by the students who are about to lose their visas,
wrote the New York Times in a report.
American universities, the most straightforward critics of U.S. practices, also
expressed their dissatisfaction. “I don’t even understand the term
‘academic espionage,’” said Mark C. Elliott, Harvard’s Vice Provost for
International Affairs. He said for academics the goal is to publish what they
have learned, and it’s to share. Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia
University remarked that “Academic research is intended to be shared — released
into the public domain to advance human progress.” He opposes the U.S. law
enforcement and intelligence agencies to develop more robust protocols for
monitoring foreign-born students and visiting scholars — particularly if they
are ethnically Chinese.
People-to-people and cultural exchanges between China
and the U.S., including their educational cooperation in the past four decades,
have received wide support from the two sides, serving as an important pillar
for their bilateral relations.
In late 1970s, former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter once told China to send 100,000 students to his
country. Since then bilateral educational cooperation set sail
and constantly injected vitality and energy into the general relationship
between the two countries.
At present, there are over 400,000 Chinese students
studying in the U.S., and China has been the largest source of international students
in the U.S. for years. The fundamental reason for such achievements is that
Chinese-U.S. educational cooperation conforms to the common demand of the two
countries, as well as the trend of the time of openness and cooperation.
However, to welcome the Chinese students is only a lip
service paid by Washington as it constantly makes troubles for China-U.S.
educational exchanges. It limited the length of visas to one year for
Chinese graduate students working in fields deemed “sensitive”, and frequently
set obstacles for Chinese students and researchers in visa application. This
time, China-U.S. educational cooperation was once again deteriorated by the
visa restriction imposed by the White House.
As the U.S. becomes more sensitive, its “national security”
is gradually incorporating everything. It seems like the country is trying to
isolate itself with the world. Does the U.S., the world’s only superpower,
think it’s fragile?
Some American politicians are obsessed with Cold War
mentality and zero-sum game, paving road for their anti-China policies with
frequent lies. What they did has triggered broad concerns in the U.S. society.
Some insightful people noted that confrontation and mutual consumption
would only damage the U.S. interests. U.S. universities also made voice
immediately after the visa restriction policy was unveiled, stressing the move
would result in multiple impacts on science and technology development, campus
culture and universities’ economic performance.
By stigmatizing Chinese students and researchers, the
U.S. politicians are indeed fanning up the so-called external threat so that
they can act tougher in diplomacy and seek political gains. Recently, legal and
civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice denounced the U.S. ban
on Chinese students from studying science, technology, engineering and
mathematics in America, saying this move is rooted in the same racism and
xenophobia that led to the expulsion of countless Chinese Americans and
immigrants under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Learning alone without exchanges with others will lead
to ignorance. The “decoupling” advocated by certain U.S. politicians, as well
as the new “Cold War” they plan to launch against China, completely go against
the trend of time.
The “handshake across the Pacific” by
former U.S. President Richard Nixon started a journey
that benefited not only Chinese and Americans, but also the people from the
world. The close relationship between the two countries nowadays conforms to
the common aspiration and interests of the two peoples.
Washington should immediately correct its wrongdoing,
abandon Cold War mentality and ideological prejudices, and stop its groundless
restriction and unreasonable persecution on Chinese students and researchers.
No one is able to reverse the trend of history. Facilitating
friendly exchange between the two peoples is in line with the will of the
people and the trend of time.
(Zhong
Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on
foreign policy.)
No one is able to reverse the trend of history
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