This is completely wrong, almost at the level of Pauli’s: “That’s not even wrong,” which is the worst insult you can hurl at someone’s assertion.
1. America is wholly dependent on foreign grad students for its leadership and innovation. Particularly Asian grad students; in Europe positions are going begging as they would here, without Koreans, Chinese, and Asians.
2. A generation of American-trained Chinese leaders won’t attack America, and are fully versed in what CHINESE CAN DO, when unfettered by the less progressive elements of their culture and government, by their direct knowledge of achievements in Taiwan, America, and Singapore.
3. Tsinghau graduates (China’s MIT) are happy to get PhDs at places like Penn State. Foreign students undergird Anerica’s huge non-genius level
While I agree with the general gist of "don't train and strengthen your adversary", I think an approach better than "keep out, stay out" is "learn here, stay here."
In previous generations, Asian students wanted to stay and build their lives here. Studying here was but the first step, unless driven away (through various factors). That is no longer the default state. Some begin with a desire to stay, others begin presuming they are only here until they finish their degree program.
No sane Asian family would send their kids abroad to study literature, gender studies or any of the stereotypical "Starbucks majors". If they're going to send them abroad, it's going to be for something practical and useful.
I think it far more productive to create a professional and cultural soil where students want to set roots and use their abilities.
True, but I also write with a non-PRC Chinese background with extended family and acquaintances with a PRC Chinese background.
PRC Chinese students will use WeChat for family communication and catching up on Chinese news. Which means continual exposure to China-is-great content, even if there is some degree of cognitive dissonance. Then on the other hand they get minimal exposure (esp the days in university contexts) to content highlighting strengths and advantages in the West, or the unique opportunities here.
On the other hand I have relatives who are Canadian and American citizens who choose to work in China (and raise their families there) rather than stay here. Partly for financial incentives, partly because Western educated individuals are more highly regarded than domestically educated "equivalents", and partly for practical reasons. As one engineer relative says "I get to work in the lab with my team of engineers there, but if I stayed here especially at corporate headquarters I'd be stuck in endless meetings every day."
We could do a far better job of "learn here, stay here" for those from PRC and those born here.
As an aside, one of my relatived educated in Canada and one of my wife's relative educated in the UK both say the same thing about why western educated individuals are more highly esteemed. "China educated people may know a lot but they only think in straight lines. They can't think creatively to work around challenges, they'll just brute force their way through challenges."
Reminds me of a study arguing why Chinese workers (and by extension military leaders) are ill-suited to Mission Command. The name eludes me at the moment but I could look it up.
Thanks for your patience with getting a little off-topic at the end 👍
It's all good. Fun side note: a handful of my daughter's classmates in high school were PRC nationals and are going to college in the USA. Their #1 priority is to never go back to the PRC not so much that they love living here - which they do - but because they are terrified of going back. They are as "American" as one can be, they just have the wrong passport.
In my conversations with PRC background neighbors, there can be a difference in perspective between those whose families have CCP connection (even at a low level) and those who don't.
scientific research infrastructure. Many stay, and work in Silicon Valley, etc.
3. China, due to demographic missteps, needs a tremendous amount of innovation to stay moving forward. There. Is. No. Choice.
4. The studies you point to focus on quantity, not quality. We are actually pulling away in all critical areas except photolithography. Without Asian (by the way, not PRC) advances in small feature lithography, our leadership in all types of software development would be retarded. Think about Morris Chang, not Xi (whom I suspect the next generation of Chinese leaders are itching to be rid of.)
5. Chinese rocketry has probably made our aircraft carriers obsolete or will in a year or two. How do we combat this? For the cost of five aircraft carriers, we threaten to move TMC to Arizona, that’s how. (There are a lot of smart people in THIS administration. Let’s hope we can keep it.) Mainland Chinese fabs are pathetic. AaSamsung, out of workers in Korea, follows suit. At just the point where Chinese almost caught up in civil rocketry (landing rovers on the moon, using store-bought PC’s as controllers) Elon Musk makes a mockery of the space-part of WORLD aerospace.
6. You win a race by training, choosing the best runners, not believing in any bullshit other than racing, and CERTAINLY not turning around and trying to hold the other guy back. Man up.
I recall the characterizations that followed the temporary suspension of flights from China following the Covid outbreak. What was one tool (amongst others) to help try to stem the pace of the pandemic was represented politically and in the media as a textbook case of xenophobia and racism. Clearly that was not the intention then or now. Attempting to do something legislatively as suggested in this article would likely be met w/similar representations. It's not hard to envision the hyperbole getting entirely out of hand in this situation. Clearly the CCP is playing for all the marbles here so not the time for "empty" gestures rooted in notions of "what could be?" rather than "what is."
We have a problem with military recruiting. It's not just because the Wokesters have made the military an unattractive occupation. It is also because there just isn't a decent pool of people to draw from. Unfit, too fat, too attached to their video games and social media and holding out for that entry level management position at $30 an hour starting pay while mom and dad let them leave rent-free in the basement. There is probably a similar problem in the colleges. How many graduates of our public school system are ready for college? The number of remedial Freshman level courses available should be telling. Reading 095, Math 095 in the 1st semester instead of English 101 and Algebra 101? How many students are ready for a STEM degree? How many are interested? Far easier to get a degree in the Humanities or the Social Science. Chemistry and Physics are far more painful than Music Appreciation and Primal Scream Milieu Therapy. Which is not to say that reading Gertrude Stein and forcing yourself to write an essay about it on your midterm that'll garner a passing grade isn't a real challenge. What is college today for most kids? A government and parent financed extension of adolescence for another 4 to 6 years, followed by melding into the Borg hive-mind. Pardon my pessimism. America's trajectory doesn't look as good as when Ike was President.
I married a "foreigner". She joined me here as a legal immigrant. Over the next 10 years I got her Mother, father, 2 sisters and 2 brothers here via the legal immigration process. Both boys joined the Navy. The eldest served 4 years as a Boiler Tender. Who can blame him for getting out? The youngest served 31 years, all of it at sea, and retired a CWO4. Yes, we need immigrants like that.
We not only need to cut them off from our university system, we need to disengage from them economically. The level of industrial espionage by the PRC is on a scale unmatched in history. Our only aluminum smelter west of the Mississippi is shuttered and may never re-open. The reason? The Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration will not offer a rate structure for power that would help make the plant competitive. Our own federal government is responsible for impeding a project with direct national security implications. There needs to be a review of strategic assets and a plan to make them a priority. We can’t go begging our enemies for the goods and raw materials to fight them. That is too stupid to even fathom. Even though many in this country think a war with China is impossible due to economic entanglements, think about this - what materiel do they need from us that they can’t buy elsewhere or don’t already have?
The US, Federal and academic leaders, once knew how to deal with our intellectual enemies; the PRC cleverly broke this arrangement by offering PRC students with PRC funds, in direct contradiction of established practices, formal and informal. Leading American scientific organizations tried to sound an alarm. To no good results.
The model once used to cope with the USSR's infiltration of our research efforts had the levers of federal grant-makers, and wide agreement at the leading scholars and research institutions to monitor these exchanges. The PRC broke this model, and within the US academic leaders there was no determined opposition to the benefits dangled by the PRC Still no real US push back, nor coordination to control visas for Chinese applicants. The PRC actively recruits among all Chinese students who graduate/study here with sweetened offers of appointments and research funds within the PRC, including some Tawainese and other oversea Chinese students. The PRC offers its best students as prospective applicants for visas and scholarships,, to use US dollars for their support; we pay the bribes required by the PRC, and then the PRC uses other American funds for the lesser qualified Chinese applicants. Make no mistake, the PRC controls, selects, and manipulates all PRC applicants.
The PRC has a companion recruitment program to ensure PRC grads return to China, and offers attractive job/research opportunities to other Chinese. BTW, PRC students who study here have visa requirements to return home for specified periods. A large majority of other foreign grads do return to the US when free to do so, a valuable intellectual talent pool. PRC students have family ties to weigh in the choice of returning to the US.
This is completely wrong, almost at the level of Pauli’s: “That’s not even wrong,” which is the worst insult you can hurl at someone’s assertion.
1. America is wholly dependent on foreign grad students for its leadership and innovation. Particularly Asian grad students; in Europe positions are going begging as they would here, without Koreans, Chinese, and Asians.
2. A generation of American-trained Chinese leaders won’t attack America, and are fully versed in what CHINESE CAN DO, when unfettered by the less progressive elements of their culture and government, by their direct knowledge of achievements in Taiwan, America, and Singapore.
3. Tsinghau graduates (China’s MIT) are happy to get PhDs at places like Penn State. Foreign students undergird Anerica’s huge non-genius level
Bullshit. You know that is bullshit. I know that is bullshit. The readers know that is bullshit.
Why is so much FAANG leadership is Indian/asian?
Lol, seriously? That might be the dumbest thing I've read all day...and I'm forced to wade through a lot of dumb shit.
Really? Specifically, what did I get wrong?
That’s known as an ad hominem attack. While I enjoy your column, your stock just dropped.
No, that is commentary on the thin gruel of your argument.
While I agree with the general gist of "don't train and strengthen your adversary", I think an approach better than "keep out, stay out" is "learn here, stay here."
In previous generations, Asian students wanted to stay and build their lives here. Studying here was but the first step, unless driven away (through various factors). That is no longer the default state. Some begin with a desire to stay, others begin presuming they are only here until they finish their degree program.
No sane Asian family would send their kids abroad to study literature, gender studies or any of the stereotypical "Starbucks majors". If they're going to send them abroad, it's going to be for something practical and useful.
I think it far more productive to create a professional and cultural soil where students want to set roots and use their abilities.
“Asian” is not the same as “Citizen of the People’s Republic of China.” I know the CCP would Iike it to be that way, but for now at least, it is not.
True, but I also write with a non-PRC Chinese background with extended family and acquaintances with a PRC Chinese background.
PRC Chinese students will use WeChat for family communication and catching up on Chinese news. Which means continual exposure to China-is-great content, even if there is some degree of cognitive dissonance. Then on the other hand they get minimal exposure (esp the days in university contexts) to content highlighting strengths and advantages in the West, or the unique opportunities here.
On the other hand I have relatives who are Canadian and American citizens who choose to work in China (and raise their families there) rather than stay here. Partly for financial incentives, partly because Western educated individuals are more highly regarded than domestically educated "equivalents", and partly for practical reasons. As one engineer relative says "I get to work in the lab with my team of engineers there, but if I stayed here especially at corporate headquarters I'd be stuck in endless meetings every day."
We could do a far better job of "learn here, stay here" for those from PRC and those born here.
As an aside, one of my relatived educated in Canada and one of my wife's relative educated in the UK both say the same thing about why western educated individuals are more highly esteemed. "China educated people may know a lot but they only think in straight lines. They can't think creatively to work around challenges, they'll just brute force their way through challenges."
Reminds me of a study arguing why Chinese workers (and by extension military leaders) are ill-suited to Mission Command. The name eludes me at the moment but I could look it up.
Thanks for your patience with getting a little off-topic at the end 👍
It's all good. Fun side note: a handful of my daughter's classmates in high school were PRC nationals and are going to college in the USA. Their #1 priority is to never go back to the PRC not so much that they love living here - which they do - but because they are terrified of going back. They are as "American" as one can be, they just have the wrong passport.
That's great!
In my conversations with PRC background neighbors, there can be a difference in perspective between those whose families have CCP connection (even at a low level) and those who don't.
scientific research infrastructure. Many stay, and work in Silicon Valley, etc.
3. China, due to demographic missteps, needs a tremendous amount of innovation to stay moving forward. There. Is. No. Choice.
4. The studies you point to focus on quantity, not quality. We are actually pulling away in all critical areas except photolithography. Without Asian (by the way, not PRC) advances in small feature lithography, our leadership in all types of software development would be retarded. Think about Morris Chang, not Xi (whom I suspect the next generation of Chinese leaders are itching to be rid of.)
5. Chinese rocketry has probably made our aircraft carriers obsolete or will in a year or two. How do we combat this? For the cost of five aircraft carriers, we threaten to move TMC to Arizona, that’s how. (There are a lot of smart people in THIS administration. Let’s hope we can keep it.) Mainland Chinese fabs are pathetic. AaSamsung, out of workers in Korea, follows suit. At just the point where Chinese almost caught up in civil rocketry (landing rovers on the moon, using store-bought PC’s as controllers) Elon Musk makes a mockery of the space-part of WORLD aerospace.
6. You win a race by training, choosing the best runners, not believing in any bullshit other than racing, and CERTAINLY not turning around and trying to hold the other guy back. Man up.
I recall the characterizations that followed the temporary suspension of flights from China following the Covid outbreak. What was one tool (amongst others) to help try to stem the pace of the pandemic was represented politically and in the media as a textbook case of xenophobia and racism. Clearly that was not the intention then or now. Attempting to do something legislatively as suggested in this article would likely be met w/similar representations. It's not hard to envision the hyperbole getting entirely out of hand in this situation. Clearly the CCP is playing for all the marbles here so not the time for "empty" gestures rooted in notions of "what could be?" rather than "what is."
We have a problem with military recruiting. It's not just because the Wokesters have made the military an unattractive occupation. It is also because there just isn't a decent pool of people to draw from. Unfit, too fat, too attached to their video games and social media and holding out for that entry level management position at $30 an hour starting pay while mom and dad let them leave rent-free in the basement. There is probably a similar problem in the colleges. How many graduates of our public school system are ready for college? The number of remedial Freshman level courses available should be telling. Reading 095, Math 095 in the 1st semester instead of English 101 and Algebra 101? How many students are ready for a STEM degree? How many are interested? Far easier to get a degree in the Humanities or the Social Science. Chemistry and Physics are far more painful than Music Appreciation and Primal Scream Milieu Therapy. Which is not to say that reading Gertrude Stein and forcing yourself to write an essay about it on your midterm that'll garner a passing grade isn't a real challenge. What is college today for most kids? A government and parent financed extension of adolescence for another 4 to 6 years, followed by melding into the Borg hive-mind. Pardon my pessimism. America's trajectory doesn't look as good as when Ike was President.
That’s why you need immigration.
I married a "foreigner". She joined me here as a legal immigrant. Over the next 10 years I got her Mother, father, 2 sisters and 2 brothers here via the legal immigration process. Both boys joined the Navy. The eldest served 4 years as a Boiler Tender. Who can blame him for getting out? The youngest served 31 years, all of it at sea, and retired a CWO4. Yes, we need immigrants like that.
We not only need to cut them off from our university system, we need to disengage from them economically. The level of industrial espionage by the PRC is on a scale unmatched in history. Our only aluminum smelter west of the Mississippi is shuttered and may never re-open. The reason? The Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration will not offer a rate structure for power that would help make the plant competitive. Our own federal government is responsible for impeding a project with direct national security implications. There needs to be a review of strategic assets and a plan to make them a priority. We can’t go begging our enemies for the goods and raw materials to fight them. That is too stupid to even fathom. Even though many in this country think a war with China is impossible due to economic entanglements, think about this - what materiel do they need from us that they can’t buy elsewhere or don’t already have?
The US, Federal and academic leaders, once knew how to deal with our intellectual enemies; the PRC cleverly broke this arrangement by offering PRC students with PRC funds, in direct contradiction of established practices, formal and informal. Leading American scientific organizations tried to sound an alarm. To no good results.
The model once used to cope with the USSR's infiltration of our research efforts had the levers of federal grant-makers, and wide agreement at the leading scholars and research institutions to monitor these exchanges. The PRC broke this model, and within the US academic leaders there was no determined opposition to the benefits dangled by the PRC Still no real US push back, nor coordination to control visas for Chinese applicants. The PRC actively recruits among all Chinese students who graduate/study here with sweetened offers of appointments and research funds within the PRC, including some Tawainese and other oversea Chinese students. The PRC offers its best students as prospective applicants for visas and scholarships,, to use US dollars for their support; we pay the bribes required by the PRC, and then the PRC uses other American funds for the lesser qualified Chinese applicants. Make no mistake, the PRC controls, selects, and manipulates all PRC applicants.
The PRC has a companion recruitment program to ensure PRC grads return to China, and offers attractive job/research opportunities to other Chinese. BTW, PRC students who study here have visa requirements to return home for specified periods. A large majority of other foreign grads do return to the US when free to do so, a valuable intellectual talent pool. PRC students have family ties to weigh in the choice of returning to the US.