Chinese students at American universities caught in crosshairs of trade war

Beijing may have a secret weapon to wield beyond soybeans and semiconductors as tariffs escalate and tensions rise between the United States and China: the large contingent of Chinese students studying in American schools.

The more than 360,000 Chinese students in the 2017-2018 academic year made up one-third of all international enrollments at U.S. universities, and they typically paid full tuition rates to revenue-hungry schools.

As President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping haggle over a new trade arrangement, colleges at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (IUC) have taken the extraordinary step of buying insurance.

“As negotiators on both sides seek leverage on each other, it’s likely that higher education will end up in the crosshairs,” Paul Musgrave, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wrote recently in Foreign Policy.com.

Mr. Musgrave told The Washington Times that losing Chinese students may not be fatal to universities but could put a severe strain on operations.

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[And so, the big obstacle to removing Chinese 'student' spies is probably the revenue hit to the universities. --Editor]