Ever since starting middle school in Beijing, Alan Ke (CAS ’27) knew he would be going abroad for college.
Full disclosure: Alan Ke served as a news writer for The Hoya from January 2024 to May 2024.
Ke’s school, the Experimental High School at Beijing Normal University, offered different tracks to students planning to pursue degrees in China and internationally. Ke’s middle-class family had sacrificed for him to pursue higher education, which they saw as a gateway to future opportunities.
For Ke’s parents, the choice for him to move to the United States for college was an investment in his future. For Ke, it was a way to pursue his studies in classics and escape the rigidity of Chinese universities.
“There was a trend that more and more people from the middle class are starting to go abroad. Especially now there’s a lot of cheaper options if you include not just the U.S., like in the U.K. or in Japan, it would be much cheaper –– much, much cheaper. And anyway, there have been a lot of students who can find a way to come to the U.S. after undergrad,” Ke told The Hoya.
Ke is one of 892 Chinese students at Georgetown University, of whom 106 are undergraduates, making China the leading source of foreign students at Georgetown.
In the past fifteen years, Georgetown has seen a surge in enrollment of Chinese students, with only 171 total enrolled in 2009. This growth reflects a broader trend among U.S. universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Chinese student enrollment increased from 680 in 2015 to 811 in 2024.
Chinese students The Hoya interviewed said unique personal and social histories have shaped their paths to Georgetown, with many drawn to elite academic education and job opportunities in the United States.
Yet as U.S.-China competition and enmity ramps up, these students’ paths to and time on the Hilltop have also been shaped by the broader implications of deteriorating U.S.-China relations. Indeed, since 2022, the number of Chinese international students at Georgetown has declined from 1,002 to 892.
After President Donald Trump issued a Jan. 20 executive order intensifying the security screening and vetting of foreign nationals applying for U.S. visas, the university began warning international students about more intensive screening and potential delays on entering the U.S.
Georgetown’s guidance on U.S. Immigration Policy and Regulatory Updates cautions students that the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice and the Director of National Intelligence will be treating foreign nationals with increased caution to “ensure that such individuals are vetted and screened ‘to the maximum degree possible,’” in line with the first Trump administration’s policies.
Dennis Wilder, a professor of Asian studies and a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, which seeks to foster discussion among students from both countries, said all Georgetown students benefit from Chinese students’ perspectives.
“One of the things that I notice is that when American students get to know Chinese students, they get a very different perspective,” Wilder told The Hoya. “Having Chinese students in the classrooms and on our campus is important.”
Moving to Secure a Bright Future
In 2017, Harry Yang (SFS ’25) moved from Beijing to Connecticut — almost halfway around the world — to start high school.
Full disclosure: Harry Yang served as a staff writer for The Hoya from September 2023 to May 2024.
“It was really an interesting time when I came because I really felt that people around me didn’t understand the background of what China’s like, and frankly speaking, I didn’t have a lot of understanding of what Americans really are like. And so it was a very interesting cultural crossover.”
Kevin Liu (MSB ’26) said a desire to leave China, particularly to avoid the notoriously difficult “gaokao” college entrance exam and the pressure of the Chinese education system, drove his decision to study in the U.S.
“People told you, you can go to China or to the U.S.,” Liu told The Hoya. “It’s a much more plain and obvious path.”
The United States is a top destination for Chinese students, with 290,000 Chinese nationals attending U.S. universities and colleges in 2023.
Yuming Lu (GRD ’25), a graduate economics student originally from Beijing, said American universities attract students because they offer more academic opportunities than Chinese universities.
“In the ranking view, the top schools, like Tsinghua or Peking University, they’re lower than MIT or Harvard,” Lu told The Hoya. “Families want the best universities for their kids.”
Yang said his journey to the U.S. was filled with obstacles: The U.S. government had twice rejected his application for a student visa with no explanation, his ability to speak English was lacking and his peers could not fathom life in his home country.
Yang said that this lack of understanding of China was clear upon entering the classroom, as he observed what he perceived as an approach driven by US national interest.
“They definitely don’t understand each other, is what I think. They definitely come from two different states of interest. They definitely come from two different perspectives. And I do feel like, just to be honest, the things I’ve seen in the US, at least, what’s being taught in the classroom is not a holistic approach.”
Liu said his experience at Georgetown has allowed him to broaden his personal perspective and professional goals thanks to the university’s Jesuit values of a global, holistic education.
“I think that I’m fairly confident that I have the mentality to deal with a variety of things,” Liu said. “Georgetown has been somewhat helpful in that aspect.”
Cultural Exchange Amid Tense U.S.-China Relations
Relations between China and the United States are complex and increasingly fractious, as politicians across Washington have framed China as an economic, geopolitical and ideological rival of the United States.
Trump’s return to the White House has led many experts to be pessimistic about U.S.-China relations. Tension between the two nations has increased in recent years, as President Trump has criticized China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. enforced sanctions against Chinese technology companies and the nations have been embroiled in a heated trade war.
These increased tensions have resulted in a national drop in enrollment of Chinese students at U.S. universities, with enrollment dropping from 373,000 in 2019 to 290,000 in 2024, and congressional backlash to connections between American and Chinese universities.
On Jan. 13, for example, the University of Michigan announced it would close its joint institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University after criticism from a House of Representatives committee focused on U.S.-China relations.
Wilder said this pressure on universities is a product of politicians using China as a scapegoat for economic problems in the United States.
“I think a lot of it has to do with American politicians who have blamed China for things,” Wilder said. “There is also the notion that Chinese have stolen American jobs — that the United States used to have a furniture business, the United States used to have a lot of other manufacturing capability — and those things have gone to China.”
Wendi Wang (SFS ’26) said political tension and misunderstandings over U.S.-China relations means she sometimes feels disconnected from U.S.-born students at Georgetown.
“It’s less direct offense, but more ignorance,” Wang told The Hoya. “You just feel that no matter how hard working you are or how many accomplishments you made, you don’t really get the recognition you deserve, you don’t receive the response that should be equivalent to your accomplishment.”
Despite this tension, U.S. born Georgetown students have continued to engage with China, both in study abroad programs and in student exchanges. Last semester, five Georgetown students studied abroad in China, with 4 in Shanghai and 1 in Beijing.
Centers like the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues also hold on-campus events and student dialogue programs that increase Hoyas’ understanding of Chinese society, Wilder said. The Initiative is currently running two student exchange programs, sending cohorts of Georgetown students to visit China during spring break and after the end of the spring semester.
“We are simply having our students exposed to other students from China to try and understand their perspective and to give Chinese students our perspective,” Wilder said.
However, some students are critical of the Initiative’s emphasis on addressing international issues rather than simply fostering personal engagement
Julio Wang (SFS ’25), a native of Shanghai who previously worked as a student assistant with the Initiative, said he wishes it targeted younger undergraduate students in cultural conversations rather than targeting upperclassmen and graduate students.
“If you only talk about policy issues with graduate students who have dedicated their whole college-level education to studying this issue, they are not the people who need this dialogue,” Wang told The Hoya. “The people who need a dialogue are the first-years or sophomores who just come in and know literally nothing about China.”
“It’s good to let them meet some ignorant Chinese college students, first-years or sophomores who also know nothing about the U.S., but who can engage in a civil dialogue and talk about this kind of common interest,” Wang added.
Challenges in Cultural Understanding at Georgetown
However, despite Georgetown’s emphasis on foreign affairs and various initiatives around US- Chinese understanding, some Chinese students find that the environment around such dialogues is unproductive.
Harry Yang said his peers sometimes automatically accept many stereotypes of the Chinese government onto Chinese international students, adding that multiple classmates have asked him whether he is a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
“There is this stigma of if you support certain policies of the Chinese government, or sometimes when you think from the perspective of China, you will be considered a member of the ruling party,” Yang said. “It’s the exact same thing as if you were Republican or Democrat in the United States. It’s not an insult if you call someone a communist — it’s a political reality.”
Yang said he believes Chinese media spreads similarly one-sided narratives about the United States.
“There’s not enough mutual understanding and respect among the two sides,” Yang said.
Julio Wang added that many U.S.-born students only seem willing to engage in dialogue with Chinese students if it is in relation to Chinese policy — ignoring personal connections that could be made in favor of controversial geo-political issues.
“When you happen to come from a different country, suddenly the questions they ask me are all about, ‘What do you think about Taiwan?’ No, I don’t. Like, honestly, that’s not me. Only 0.001% of me is thinking about Taiwan,” Julio Wang said. “I think about friends and the food and the city and can tell you more about that. So why does that aspect of me disappear and I suddenly become a representative for the Chinese government at Georgetown, just because I’m probably from China?”
A university spokesperson told The Hoya that Georgetown emphasizes the need for collaboration and further engagement among students from different backgrounds.
“Georgetown’s approach to its international activities reflects the Jesuit tradition of openness to engagement and the belief that dialogue and scholarship can increase international understanding, even when there may be significant differences or disagreements,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.
Wilder fears the new Trump administration could slow down or stop what he believes to be essential exchanges.
“We are worried that the Trump administration may decide to do more restrictions on Chinese students in the United States,” Wilder said. “There are already restrictions against Chinese students who have an association with the Chinese military. If a student has been to a military university in China or is associated with a Chinese defense firm, they can’t come to the United States.”
“The less Chinese students we have on campus, the less opportunity for our students to learn about China from them,” Wilder added.
Yang said fellow seniors who are Chinese international students fret about their uncertain futures in the United States, as Chinese nationals are struggling to obtain a green card to work in the country after graduation as the Trump administration presents a much harsher stance on immigration.
“There’s been discussion among my peers of how it’s going to be like, ‘What’s our future within this country?’ Yang said. “And it’s sort of complicated, because it seems like Trump, on one hand, wants people who have been educated or have expertise in something to stay in the U.S., but at the same time, his overall immigration policy seems to be sort of hostile.”
Yang said the presence of Chinese students on Georgetown’s campus is essential because it generates open dialogue and fosters learning and understanding among both U.S. and Chinese students, which could be the key to strengthening future pathways between the two nations.
“Sometimes, when I talk to my friends, I think we all realize that just by them having a friend who’s actually from China and has different opinions and a different life experience and different perspectives on things, it’s really helpful,” Yang said. “I think having this kind of cross cultural understanding is really important in the next 50 years.”
Julio Wang said that despite the political friction between China and the U.S., moving conversation beyond the political to the personal is the best way to assuage conflict between the nations.
“Even in this kind of adverse environment, there are good sparks that are helping this by helping this dialogue,” Wang said. “For the people-to-people level, I have not lost faith yet. I think this is where the differences are made.”
Catherine Alaimo and Paulina Inglima contributed to this reporting.