“Reception Hall with Tang Ning” is one of the most popular internet interactive broadcast shows in China with a very large audience base across the nation. Mr. Tang Ning is the founder and CEO of CreditEase Group and the host of “Reception Hall with Tang Ning Show.” 

On January 26, Josh Cheng, Executive Director of Stanford Center at Peking University, was invited to make an appearance in the show with two other guests: Professor Xiao Zhixing, and Mr. Jingsheng Huang, who retired last June from the post of Managing Director of Harvard (Shanghai) Center. The issue focused on the discussion, once again, was an extremely hot topic in China nowadays…. “Pursuing studies in America.”  It was estimated by CreditEase staff, and the January 26 show attracted close to a million viewers.

In the discussion, Mr Cheng strongly advises Chinese parents that if the family had the means and capabilities, sending kids to study in America is a decision that “goes without saying.”  Cheng alluded, based on his personal experience, that education in the US had completely changed his mindset, opened up brand new horizons, and equipped with a new set of perspectives and angles that had been guiding his career life. Stanford's education has profoundly changed his life and his family life for many generations to come.

Strategically, Cheng advised, Chinese parents ought to urge their youngsters to come to North America to explore and discover new fields, a new society, new ways of thinking, and more importantly, to discover themselves. Parents should not urge and expect their youngsters to come to America by living in a very closed Chinese speaking cluster and isolated from American society at large and forget about the mission of coming to American is not only taking some courses and get some degrees but to experience a discovery process that explores humanity, society, technologies, universe and themselves.

Professor Xiao Zhixing, who taught at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), has worked with many entrepreneurs in China for a long time. Those entrepreneurs are more likely to send their kids abroad earlier; thus, their children lacked a sense of purpose and motivation. He pointed out that entrepreneurs should pay more attention to their children's cultural identity, self-identity, and sense of belonging and cultivate their creativity and leadership.

Mr. Huang commented on whether to go abroad at present: at a strategic level, education is a marathon, the same as life. It is unwise to be bound by age. Studying abroad is something that any age group can do, and it can be a lifelong plan. At the tactic level, for Chinese students who are currently facing the choice of studying abroad, they can make full use of the gap year to enrich themselves and improve their abilities in all aspects. Parents need to broaden their horizons and understand their children's wishes. Studying in Britain and the United States is not the only choice.

Watch the discussion here.

According to a local report there are more than 600,000 students from China currently studying in the US and millions of Chinese families are planning to send their kids to pursue their education in North America.

However, the deterioration of Sino US relations in recent years, combined with uncertainties from the pandemic around the globe had had a profound impact on those students who are already studying in the US and parents who are preparing to send their kids to study in America.

Stanford Center at Peking University, along of other peer institutions in China, had been approached by various groups seeking perspectives and insights on critical issues: Is it still safe and sound to send kids to study in America? Are there indications that US universities and schools are closing their doors to Chinese students?  Should parents and students start to seek other options, perhaps study in the UK or other countries?

In response to such concerns and with a desire to serve local communities, a round table panel discussion was held at the Yale Center of China in Beijing on Dec 26, 2020.   Stanford’s Executive Director, Josh Cheng, was among the nine directors of American education institutions with Centers in China who participated in the discussion.  Others (shown in the photo) participating in person were Yale, Chicago, Cornell, Notre Dame, and Columbia.  Representatives from Harvard, Wharton and Princeton participated virtually.

The directors shared with their personal experiences as well as institutional practices to directly address many concerns expressed by Chinese parents and students.  They believe US universities and schools will continue to welcome Chinese students, both in undergraduate and post graduate programs.  Having international students is an inseparable part of the global extension effort by almost every American educational institution. 

Stanford University just issued a statement in support of Stanford's international students and scholars, explicitly including those from China.

https://news.stanford.edu/today/2021/02/08/statement-president-marc-tessier-lavigne-support-stanfords-international-students-scholars/

Josh Cheng shared his perspectives on the safety and security concerns with Chinese parents. Using practices at Stanford, and other American universities, Mr. Cheng reiterated that American universities always make the safety and security of its students, staffs and faculties top priority.

The panel discussion was well attended, and it was agreed that if the pandemic policy of limiting visitors by PKU is lifted in near future, the Stanford Center at Peking University could serve as next host of the continuing discussion on US China Education.

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The past few months have been the strangest time. It was additionally peculiar for me in that, since I was learning remotely in China, most of my classes took place from midnight to morning. Sitting in front of my laptop each night while the world slumbered around me was difficult. But I also remember the way, from time to time, glimmers of conversations on zoom would absorb me entirely and make me forget I was alone and in the dark. Having met those wonderful people saved me from the coldness of seclusion, and made my quarter so much better:’) 

-2024, ALICE

I thought online college would be a disaster, but luckily, I was wrong. The teaching teams made lots of efforts to accommodate to the challenges in online instruction, so the learning experience was still of great quality despite being a different format. Moreover, the communities are amazing! My classmates and the student orgs I joined, especially the Gaieties team, always made my day in the past quarter. Can't wait to continue my journey at Stanford! 

-2024, SHAWN

This was definitely not how I expected college to start. The empty abyss of those Zoom squares with cameras off, those awkward moments of silence in breakout rooms, those bookmarked school events I didn’t attend: all things that made up my first quarter in college scream “human_interaction == 0”. Added on to my FOMO was the decreasing motivation to talk to people online. Therefore, when I went to Beijing to see my friends for the first time, I felt relieved. “They went through the same struggles I did.” I thought, “I’m with them.” There is a silver lining after all. 

-2024 RACHEL

I always thought that waking up at 5:00am would be the biggest challenge of online learning. But that becomes trivial when I face the real challenge --- lack of partnership. I remember the many hours stuck on a coding problem, alone; the many days spent looking for online studying buddies who could match my time zone; the many weeks of struggle to keep myself energized by my sheer curiosity of knowledge. It is at the freshman in-person gathering in Beijing that I truly feel my draining energy become to restore by the laughter, compassion, and wittiness of my classmates. It is people who makes Stanford attractive. 

-2024 DAVID

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The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) has broadened its fellowship and funding opportunities to support Stanford students working in the area of contemporary Asia. The Center introduced these expanded offerings in response to the harsh impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on student’s academic careers and their access to future jobs and valuable work experience, and in recognition of the critical need to make the field of Asian Studies more diverse and inclusive.

APARC’s diversity grant aims to encourage Stanford students from underrepresented minorities (URM) to engage in the study and research of topics related to contemporary Asia and U.S.-Asia relations, including economic, health, foreign policy, social, political, and security issues. The grant, which was first announced in June 2020, is now an ongoing offering. APARC will award a maximum of $10,000 per grant. Current  Stanford undergraduate and graduate students in the URM category from any major or discipline are eligible and encourage to apply.

APARC also invites Stanford Ph.D. candidates specializing in topics related to contemporary Asia to apply for its 2021-22 predoctoral fellowship. Up to three fellowships are available and the application deadline is May 1, 2021.

In addition, APARC continues to offer an expanded array of research assistant internships. The Center is currently seeking highly motivated Stanford undergraduate- and graduate-level students to join our team as paid research assistant interns for the spring and summer quarters of 2021. Applications for spring 2021 research assistant assignments are due on February 22, for summer 2021 assignments on March 8.

This op-ed by Aynne Kokas and Oriana Skylar Mastro was originally published in the Australian Financial Review.

The images of bare-chested, flag-waving MAGA loyalists overtaking the US Capitol flooded US social media and news channels in the days following the January 6 siege against the electoral college count. Memed and amplified, the same images circulated widely on Chinese social media and state-owned news sites without even the need for critical commentary.

The literal destruction of the US Capitol at the hands of President Donald Trump's followers required little imagination to characterize abroad as the downfall of American democracy.

There are many reasons for pessimism. According to one of the most authoritative indexes, Polity, the United States is no longer the world’s oldest continuous democracy, dropping in status to a system that is part democracy, part dictatorship.

Beyond the domestic concerns faced in the aftermath of the breach of one of America's most hallowed buildings, the Capitol siege was a win for China. US soft power, one of its comparative advantages in the great power competition, has taken a huge hit.

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Soft power is “the ability to get what you want through persuasion or attraction in the forms of culture, values, and policies”.⁠ The US has been the primary beneficiary of soft power, with its globally recognized brands, pop culture, fast-food chains, world-renowned universities, and political values.

It is relatively low cost and high impact compared with other forms of power. The United States' relative attractiveness is one of the reasons America prevailed in the Cold War.

The Chinese government is having a propaganda field day. More than ever, the US looks like a country in decline, discouraging to allies and potential partners. Chinese commentators have noted that America's days as the "city on the hill" have come to an end. This is karma, some say, payback for the US supporting opposition groups, as in Hong Kong. As one netizen commented on the popular microblog website Weibo: "So lucky to be born in China."

China has also been trying to increase its soft power through traditional mechanisms such as building its media, education, and tourism sectors. It has enjoyed only moderate success in these areas because of its censorship, pollution, and lack of independent civil society.

But COVID-19 has led to the strengthening of other Chinese public diplomacy efforts, such as its landmark Belt and Road Initiative global trade and investment scheme.

Related initiatives such as the Digital Silk Road, a program to build out global digital infrastructure using Chinese technology, and the Health Silk Road, a plan to export Chinese health expertise through things such as COVID-19 laboratories and vaccine diplomacy, draw on China's comparative advantage in a top-down soft power approach.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has undermined the historical sources of US soft power. It has shuttered visa lines, investigated international students on campus, and driven the rise of a culture of nationalism. The cancellation of the Fulbright US Student Program and the Peace Corps program in China are prime examples. And the COVID-19 decreased US media production, educational exchange and tourism, which shrank opportunities for promoting its democratic values on the global stage.

A bird’s-eye view of America's relative soft power may seem to offer cause for optimism. Even after four years of Trump's buffoonery and "America First", the US is still far ahead of China, ranking fifth in overall soft power, while China ranks 24th. And isn’t this what matters in competition?

Yes and no. The problem is two-fold. First, the US relies more on its political values as a soft power source than Beijing does. Ironically, this has especially been the case during the Trump administration. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has argued that democracies and authoritarian countries such as China “are offering a different approach to the world”. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has argued to international audiences that democracy is “what we’ve got right”.

Second, Beijing has tried to leverage its comparative advantages to build soft power through pathways other than political values, especially where a top-down government approach is effective. China set up COVID-19 testing labs in Palestine in agreement with Israeli and Palestinian authorities. It extended its hand in Africa by building more than 70 percent of its 4G infrastructure.

Depending on need, useful solutions can be as compelling as political principles.The future of the US as a world leader is at stake. American military base access worldwide depends on perceived political alignment between the US and its allies. In the tech sector, the widespread adoption of US platforms relies on other countries finding that benefits to allowing in foreign platforms outweigh the potential political risks.

Successful multilateral treaty negotiations on issues such as global trade and climate change rely on the perception of a dependable US political system.

A National Academies panel commissioned by the State Department shed new light on a disturbing and still mysterious episode. Employees in the Cuban embassy reported headaches, pressure, nausea, strange piercing noises, and cognitive problems seeming to emanate from a directed source. Commerce Department employees in China also had similar experiences. Dr. David Relman discusses some of what hampered the investigation.

Listen to the interview at Federal News Network