Interview with Gordon Dumoulin, TFF Associate
On CGTN

September 7, 2020

Chinese students in U.S. universities are increasingly becoming the collateral damage of the ongoing China-U.S. friction. The University of North Texas (UNT) recently became the first American university to cut ties with the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) resulting in the expulsion of 15 Chinese visiting researchers.

Beijing has criticized the decision, calling it yet another example of the U.S.’s sabotage of people-to-people exchanges. Meanwhile U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing a blanket restriction on Chinese students from studying in the U.S., according to reports.

China has been the largest source of international students in U.S. for over a decade. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump’s “unpredictable policies” have already reduced Chinese demand for a U.S. education.

Beijing-based Dutch educator and a proponent of cross-cultural competence – and TFF Associate – Gordon Dumoulin sees the latest UNT action as part of the larger decoupling trend between the U.S. and China. “The radical decoupling in trade, education and diplomacy might throw humanity back by decades,” he says.

CGTN Digital’s International Editor Abhishek G Bhaya spoke with Dumoulin to understand the fallout of education decoupling on people-to-people relations and if there’s a way to heal the severed links.

Here is the link to the video and edited excerpts in print.

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  Abhishek G Bhaya, CGTN, China-US decoupling, Chinese students forced to leave the US, cross-cultural competence, inter-cultural understanding, international education, people-to-people exchange, studies abroad, University of North Texas, US-China educational exchange