Graduate students from China attend the Columbia University Commencement ceremony in New York, the United States, May 22, 2019.

A growing number of Chinese students and visiting scholars have faced interrogation and even had their electronic devices seized by US customs amid the simmering bilateral confrontation, and this hostility has affected Chinese students' willingness to study in the US, according to students reached by the Global Times. 

Harassment and interrogation at customs is another method the US administration uses to obstruct normal academic exchanges and blatantly deter international students and scholars, who used to facilitate mutual understanding but are now targeted by the US government, analysts said. 

A prospective student at a university in California just deferred her offer for one year amid the pandemic and bilateral tensions. After recent news reports of Chinese being interrogated at US customs, the student surnamed Chen told the Global Times that if such hostility continues in 2021, she may reject the offer and work in China or apply again, this time to a European school. 

A PhD candidate at Duke University, who required anonymity, said that he had been persuading more junior scholars not to come to the US for graduate studies, given the current situation. 

Hannah He, a Shanghai-based education consultant, told the Global Times that students using their services to go to the US contracted in 2019 but dropped dramatically this year. Some bought US consultancy packages but switched to other destinations, He said. 

"The pandemic is definitely the most immediate threat, but the China-US tensions have sparked concerns of racism and government violence," He said, noting that alternatives include the UK, Singapore and non-English speaking countries such as Germany. 

According to a white paper issued by New Oriental Education and Technology Group, the UK has overtaken the US and become the top destination for Chinese students.

Zhang Qiluo, who finished her BA and MA degrees in the US in 2015, told the Global Times that for previous generations of Chinese students including herself, it was pleasant to recall their days in the US, learning knowledge and making friends. But now it is totally different for Chinese students.

"Today, they return home with the hostility they experienced, fear and trauma," Zhang said, referring specifically to increasing arbitrary interrogations of Chinese students and scholars by US customs.

The Global Times learned from a visiting scholar at a southern US university who just returned to China that he was interrogated for 90 minutes and barely caught his plane. 

Another had all her baggage searched at the Houston airport and missed the plane. 

Many Chinese students and scholars shared their experiences of being interrogated in the "little black room" with leading questions at customs and having their laptops, mobile phones and other devices searched. 

A PhD student had his mobile phone, iPad, laptops and hard drives confiscated by US customs in Boston. It will take months to get the devices back, he was told. 

"All the questions the officers asked were based on the assumption that I was spying for a Chinese institute," the student wrote on Sina Weibo, noting the two-hour interrogation was "a complete negation of my work and my dignity." 

People having such experiences also reminded their peers to be careful of such leading questions as they may be trapped. The questions include "do you still have contact with your teachers and classmates in China?" 

US border agents carried out 1,147 searches of Chinese nationals' electronic devices in 2019, up 66 percent from the previous year, according to official data obtained by the media.  

China's Foreign Ministry has warned Chinese students and scholars multiple times to be cautious of increasing arbitrary interrogation, harassment, seizure of personal property and detention by US law enforcement personnel. The ministry has also repeatedly urged the US not to obstruct normal academic exchanges in the name of security or demonize Chinese students and scholars for political purposes. 

Such "near-normal" experiences are taking place alongside other US hostilities. Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to shut down all Confucius Institutes in the US. In late August, the University of North Texas abruptly expelled 15 Chinese visiting scholars funded by the China Scholarship Council. 

Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times that US hostility toward foreign scholars has mounted since 2018 and he also had experiences of being interrogated at airports. But starting this year, the "scope and content of these interrogations have expanded significantly," Lü said.

Deterring Chinese will eventually backfire as "international students and scholars have long been an important part of American universities and research institutes," Lü said. 

Lü noted that by demonizing every Chinese student and scholar as spies, the US is trying to instigate Americans' hatred against Chinese, extending the China-US diplomatic friction into radical hostility between the two peoples. 


Newspaper headline: US interrogations deter Chinese students