US and China must stop ‘race to bottom’ in blocking academic visas, say American scholars
- American scholars call on both countries to allow more academic exchanges after Chinese academics have their US visas revoked
- Critics also point the finger at Beijing saying it has a long history of blocking visiting academics from entering the country
American academics have warned that a tit-for-tat visa war targeting scholars from China and the US will only hurt both sides, fuel mutual suspicion and damage academic channels of communication.
The assessment came after several prominent Chinese academics said they had been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigations on suspicion of spying and have had their 10-year, multi-entry US visas revoked.
But some of their American counterparts pointed out that China had been imposing restrictions on academics for decades and blocking scholarly visits, and urged both sides to halt the “race to the bottom” and allow more access to visiting experts.
“At this time of significant stress in US-China relations, it is precisely when we need to have as much dialogue among academic experts as possible,” said David Shambaugh, a professor of Chinese politics at the George Washington University.
He said it only aggravated the already broken academic dialogue between the two nations as “many of the institutional channels for such ‘track-two’ [unofficial] dialogues have broken down in recent years”.
