More Indian than Chinese students at US universities for the first time

In the last academic year, Indian students ousted their Chinese colleagues for the first time since 2009, becoming the largest group in American universities. This is the result of data published by the US State Department and the Institute for International Education, reported by CNN. India, which had already overtaken China as the world's most populous country, also has a 40 per cent population under the age of 25, in stark contrast to its increasingly 'elderly' Chinese counterpart. China still accounts for a quarter of all international students, but has been overtaken by India's 29%.

Experts say the decline is the result of significant changes in both policy and public perception, with many Chinese students and families concerned about safety, racism, discrimination and immigration difficulties, especially as more options open up in other countries, including China itself. "We are seeing on both sides, Chinese students studying in America and American students studying in China, that the numbers are decreasing," said Mallie Prytherch, a researcher at the Centre on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong.

After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, many Chinese families, enriched by the growing economy, saw the opportunity to send children to the US as a way to expand and discover different worlds. This was reflected in the numbers: Chinese university students in the US rose from about 98,200 in 2009 to a record 369,500 in 2019.

However, from 2016, with Donald Trump's first administration, things began to change. The tycoon cancelled the Fulbright exchange programme with China and imposed a ban preventing Chinese students from enrolling in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines and obtaining visas to the US.

In 2020, the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese students and researchers were revoked as security risks. The situation did not improve under Joe Biden, and in January 2023, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denounced the expulsion of dozens of Chinese citizens, including international students, from the country, calling the behaviour 'discriminatory'.