Banning foreign students from American universities will damage US-Asian relations in the long term
The president is willing to harm American universities’ gold standard reputations if it means he has a better chance of re-election, writes Adam Withnall
The Trump administration’s announcement that foreign students will not be able to stay on into the autumn term if their classes remain online will have far-reaching implications for US foreign relations.
American universities welcome more than a million international students every year, and almost two-thirds of those come from just three major Asian economies – China, India and South Korea.
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper branded it a “xenophobic” move that would only “harm higher education” in the US. China sent more than 360,000 students to American universities in 2019.
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