A group of Tsinghua students visited the U.S., here's what they thought

During the summer of 2023, a group of Tsinghua University students visited the United States, led by one faculty member. The Gen Z team comprises students from various disciplines and had a chance to observe the United States from within.

The visit is said to be the first by a THU team since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and given that these are some of China’s brightest students, Beijing Channel took the opportunity to interview the students after their return, to discover that they experienced, observed and felt.

【1】A unpleasant entry

The students hit their first snag going through the customs at Boston airport. Despite presenting valid credentials, 5 of the 14 students were questioned for multiple hours.

Two customs officers jointly questioned Sam, a quantum information major student. He said the first question he was asked was “Why are you not a CPC member?”A question that he did not see coming. Other students were asked similar questions on party affiliation.

"It seems in their eyes all Chinese are CPC members," another student added.

According to Sam, he told the customs officer that each Chinese person can choose whether to join the CPC.

“You are lying. How can you represent Tsinghua if you are not a CPC member?” Sam recounted the response from the U.S. officer.

“Isn’t that the meaning of representation? That we would have both party members and non-party members?” Sam said.

Sam said in hours of interrogation he was accused of lying multiple times, and the U.S. officers seemed to hold a guilty-until-proven-innocent mentality.

“According to their logic, because I study physics and physics is an advanced discipline, it must serve the Chinese military, and therefore I must be associated with the Chinese military, and that everything I said must be lies,” Sam said.

According to the students, another logic that the U.S. officers seemed to hold was that because the group’s itinerary included meeting with the U.S. think tanks and some of the think tanks had close relationships with the U.S. government, the students are suspected of being after U.S. government secrets.

Some of the students were also asked why they looked nervous, and the students answered, that if you are held up by a police officer without committing any wrongdoing, you’d think something’s wrong too.

According to the students, toward the end of the questioning, one of the U.S. officers warned the students “Don’t think that you are so skilled in answering questions, we are proceeding professionally, you need to watch yourself while in the United States.”

【2】A pot-flavored apple

At the gate of Harvard University, many students noticed a nasty stench. The team’s leader told the students it was the smell of marijuana. The students said, that when they arrived in New York City, the entire city was steeped in the smell.

Anna, who is from Tsinghua’s School of Sociology, said she’s been to the United States multiple times before. The most striking impression for her was the feeling that the U.S. society is “decaying”.

Aside from the stench of marijuana, Downtown NYC is dirty, disorderly, and rundown. Anna said she noticed many more homeless people on the streets of NYC this time around, there are even homeless people in Times Square, and police presence is also much more visible this time.

“The most exaggerated scene I saw was a NYPD officer armed with three guns,” Anna said.

“The skyline of New York is still breathtaking, and the unemployment numbers given by the Labor Department are still rosy, but they felt detached from reality,” Anna said.

【3】A position of strength

At the Stimson Center, the students met with three U.S. State Department officials led by Erik Black.

The students noted that the U.S. diplomats were very well prepared for their meeting, each of them bringing a heavy binder filled with talking points on hot-button issues ranging from Taiwan, the China-India border dispute, the South China Sea, and trade.

The students found the U.S. position on Taiwan most unacceptable. Black was quoted by the students as saying that the United States pays close attention to Taiwan, and maintains that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan were in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act and the U.S. One-China Policy. Black further stated that Washington believes that there’s a risk of conflict in the Taiwan Strait and that the United States is “protecting Taiwan”. The students said Black says the United States supports a peaceful resolution to the Taiwan question but shied away from talking about a peaceful reunification of Taiwan.

The students described the U.S. position as “arrogant”, and Cathy of the School of Business Management said the discussion gave her the feeling that Washington considered Taiwan an independent political entity.

【4】Doves in the eagle’s nest

During their visit, the students were happy to find friendly faces, who called for stabilizing the China-U.S. relationship.

At Harvard University, the students were warmly received by vice-provost Mark C. Elliot. Elliot, a seasoned China scholar, told the students that he hoped the students could feel welcomed at Harvard. “Regardless of the relationship between governments, we still very much welcome people-to-people and school-to-school communication, we believe that exchanges between students and schools should not be interrupted by official relationship.”

At George Washington University, the students met with Robert Sutter and a group of GWU students. Sutter was straightforward in saying that bilateral ties are in “free fall”, and the prospect of cooperation in any field looked “dim”, but some of the GWU students offered different takes based on their own experience.

One American student said he was interning at a tech company and felt that there’s a high degree of cooperation between Chinese and U.S. academia on AI. “I hope this cooperation could continue,” the student said.

Another American student added that looking at history, even during the height of the Cold War, the U.S. and USSR scientists cooperated through third parties.

A third American student said he wanted to clarify that the folks on the hill “don’t represent us, especially the young because they are so old.”

【5】Things to learn

During their trip, the students observed aspects of the U.S. society that China should learn from.

Zoe, a student from the School of Architecture, said there are many details in the U.S. urban design that are more advanced.

For example, pedestrian signal lights are shaped as a hand and a walking figure, to help the color blind determine the signal. Almost all buildings have accessible designs for the disabled. Road design at intersections is friendly for cars, bikes, and pedestrians, and water fountains found everywhere are very convenient.

Zoe said before coming to the United States she thought infrastructure was one of China’s strengths, but the trip educated her on how to optimize the infrastructure to serve all members of the society.

Other students made similar observations. They said it’s more often to see people with crutches or on wheelchairs. “we don’t see them as often in China because it’s more inconvenient for them to move around.”

The interview is conducted and organized by MA Xiao, and translated into English by Beijing Channel. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Tsinghua University, Xinhua News Agency, or this newsletter.