Selling The ‘China Story’: Why America Must Reject Beijing’s Academic Exchange

On the White House lawn last month, Xi Jinping offered America a gift. “I am glad to announce an invitation for 100,000 young Americans to visit China for exchanges and study in the coming five years,” he said at the arrival ceremony with President Trump. He framed it as friendship between peoples, with the future in the hands of the young.

It doubled a promise he made in San Francisco in 2023, when he pledged to host 50,000 young Americans over five years. Beijing says it met that target by May 2026, two and a half years early, a misleading claim because most of the 50,000 participated in short camps, language tours, and friendship voyages, run in part through the China Education Association for International Exchange. This is not what Americans usually mean by study abroad.