A growing number of American colleges and universities have formed joint ventures to operate in China — despite the risks.
Duke Kunshan University’s campus, pictured above, opened to students in 2014. Credit: Crcolas, Creative Commons
There is an ever-growing fear among some United States officials that Beijing’s influence is reaching into American universities. For U.S. schools with campuses in China, it’s a far less theoretical question.
This week, The Wire explores American college and university joint ventures in China — from Juilliard School’s new campus in Tianjin to Duke University's new 200-acre campus in the city of Kunshan.
Coming to America
Soon after President Nixon’s opening to China in the 1970s, large numbers of Chinese students began attending American colleges and universities. Today, in fact, China is the largest source of international students at American colleges and universities. According to the Institute for International Education, there were nearly 370,000 students from China enrolled in American colleges and universities during the 2018-2019 academic year, the last year for which figures are available.
Nearly 1.1 million international students studied in the United St
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
