Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, according to the latest report that the American Institute of International Education (IIE) released, for the 2018-2019 academic year, China remains the largest source of U.S. foreign students. However, the growth rate of Chinese students is slowing and has reached the lowest point in a decade. It appears this is a direct result of problems such as visa issuance. China has been the largest foreign student source for the U.S. for ten years now. For the 2018-2019 year, China has 370,000 students in the States. This represents one-third of the total number of foreign students in the U.S. Geng Shuang, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented on the IIE report at a press conference. He thought that the reduction in the growth rate apparently showed that current U.S. policies impacted the image and the reputation of the United States and that they also blocked healthy exchanges between the U.S. and the outside world. He thought this, in fact, might hurt U.S. interests. Although President Trump has expressed his position of welcoming Chinese student multiple times, yet it would be better if this positive attitude displayed itself in reality. Geng said that, hopefully, next year’s number will look better.
Source: Sina, November 22, 2019
https://chinanews.sina.com/gb/2019-11-22/doc-ifzramam2666041.shtml