India surpasses China for first time in number of international students in US

Recently, the Global Times newspaper cited the survey results of the Institute of InternationalEducation (IIE) saying that the number of Indian students in the US has surpassed China for the first time in the past 15 years.

Ấn Độ lần đầu tiên vượt Trung Quốc về số lượng du học sinh tại Mỹ

Chinese students on graduation day at an American university. (Source: AFP)

Specifically, in the 2023-2024 academic year, there will be 331,602 Indian students studying in the US, an increase of 23% over the previous year, while the number of Chinese students will decrease by 4% to 277,398.

Experts say the decline in Chinese student numbers is due to a hostile political climate, US security concerns and growing opportunities in China.

Scholar Lu Xiang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , said the US China Initiative , which targeted Chinese students and scholars since 2018, was one of the main reasons. Although the initiative was discontinued in 2022, tensions between the two countries continue.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said in June that the US wants to attract more students from India, an increasingly important security partner, instead of China. According to Chinese scholars, Washington sees India, the world’s most populous country, as a potential counterweight to China in the future.

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