【GYLD Talk】Koen Smeets: US-China Academic Exchanges

【GYLD Talk】US-China Academic Relations: The Importance of Exchanges

Since the start of the pandemic in 2019, 100,000 fewer Chinese students are studying in the United States. Similarly, only about 400 Americans are currently studying in China. Programs to study on either side are being underfunded or rapidly being cut. An important example being the Fulbright Program to Hong Kong SAR, which scholars on both sides of the Pacific call to reinstate. What will happen when the exchanges continue to drop further, when Americans and Chinese practically will only meet to headbutt at the negotiation table?

In September 2022, I had the privilege of being amongst the very first foreign students to study again in China. My studies of China started over a year before that, through a virtual exchange semester with Peking University. I loved my studies at Beida so much that I applied as well for my graduate studies there, specifically at the Yenching Academy, the program which brought me to China and here to you today.

Throughout my past year in China, there’s so much I’ve learned that no textbook, paper, or lecture could ever have taught me. These things I’ve learned through experiencing for myself the differences in the souls of cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Sanya, taking a Gaotie all the way from Hong Kong to Beijing, and all the friendships I’ve built along these journeys. These things become impossible as US-China relations, especially academic ones, continue to deteriorate and is therefore, I as a Dutch citizen give this speech and I’m very passionate about my research on historical and contemporary US-China relations.

From my interviewees for my podcast‘China Hands,’and my research in US-China relations, I learn as well that they have the exact same thing that for them coming to China in 1979 also taught them so many things that their program in the US could never have taught. And therefore, I think it’s key to we continue these exchanges.

There are three lessons I wish to share with you from my research. Firstly, it is key that citizens from the US continue to study in China, and citizens from China, continue to study in the US. Secondly, improving such relations will require both sides to make compromises with deep consideration for the needs, wants, and cultural differences of the other side. Lastly, I want to say how key it is for Americans study in China as well. And I hope me sharing my story with you today illustrated.

Thank you for listening.

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