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现在，在美的中国学生人数是在华的美国学生人数的30倍。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
wide open[waid ˈəupən] 张开
pronounced[prəˈnaʊnst] adj.明显
阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。
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The gaping trade deficit of the US with China over the past few years led to an ongoing trade war. But there is one aspect of US-Chinese exchange that is much less reported on, while its impact is becoming much bigger: the exchange of international students. At 360,000, there are now 30 times as many Chinese students in the US as there are US students in China.
If the US managed to send more of its sons and daughters to China to study, part of the education imbalance would be rectified — and with it an information asymmetry that exists between the two countries. But as long as that doesn’t happen, the number of Americans with a working knowledge of China is likely to fall further behind the number of Chinese who are familiar with the US.
beyondbrics
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beyondbrics is a forum on emerging markets for contributors from the worlds of business, finance, politics, academia and the third sector. All views expressed are those of the author(s) and should not be taken as reflecting the views of the Financial Times.
Among the news of the escalating trade war between the US and China, the Open Doors report of the Institute for International Education last week got a bit snowed under. But its findings were head-turning. A record number of international students, 1.1m, were studying in the US last year. And for the first time in history, Chinese accounted for more than one-third of them.
Considering China counts almost 1.4bn people, the 360,000 or so among them that currently study in the US may seem like a drop in the ocean. But two data points help put this number into perspective.
First, there is a cumulative effect: over the past decade, more than a million Chinese students have come to America. Most of them returned to China, taking with them a backpack full of knowledge. And second, the reverse US student exchange to China is tiny: last year, only about 12,000 Americans crossed the Pacific to China.
While the asymmetry is nothing new, the trend has certainly got more pronounced in the last decade. In 2007, less than 70,000 Chinese studied in the US. Since then, that number has grown more than five times. Conversely, the number of American students going to China remained virtually flat in the decade since 2007: it grew from 11,064 to 11,910 in 2017.
Beyond the sheer numbers, this story is essentially about information asymmetry, and the transfer of knowledge.
Consider first the knowledge transfer and the story of Chongfei Shen. I met Chongfei in Shanghai two years ago, where his company occupied a floor in one of the city’s innovation zones. He told me how he got his graduate degree in electrical engineering at Princeton University in 1996, and after several years of working for a variety of companies in the US, decided to return to China. Back in the Middle Kingdom, he created Magnity, a company that develops high-end thermal imaging technologies.
In this he is not alone. Previously, Chinese students coming to study in the US meant a loss of intellectual capital for China. But that is no longer true. As Quartz recently reported, “at the beginning of the century, only one in 10 Chinese students returned to China after studying abroad. In 2017, it was eight in 10.” In other words, the “brain drain” is now reversed.
These returning students are changing the face of their country. They are becoming teachers themselves, pushing Chinese high schools and universities to higher levels, joining companies, helping them challenge the US in the arms race for AI leadership, or even starting firms of their own, turning China increasingly into the leading country for venture capital, start-ups and innovation.
It isn’t just in academic knowledge that China is gaining the upper hand. The same can be said about cultural, societal, and political knowledge. Every student going abroad gets to know his or her host country in a variety of ways. But at 12,000 a year, the number of Americans who know China first hand pales in comparison with the Chinese who know America.
Particularly this latter issue is now starting to worry politicians. In recent months there were reports of Chinese students acting as spies for their government in both the US and the UK. Consequently, both governments considered restrictions on Chinese students. But opposition to such considerations grew partly because of the impact that such a course would have on university finances.
It is best this way. Let students travel and study abroad. A better education policy for any government dealing with China is to incentivise Americans, British or Europeans to go there, rather than to restrict the flow of Chinese to the West. Doing so, Westerners could learn first hand how Generation Z is transforming China, to give just one example.
In this, America has ample leeway: it sent more than 330,000 students abroad last year, but the UK, Spain and Italy, France and Germany were all preferred over China. I can speak for the attractiveness of those destinations myself: I lived in the UK and studied in all four other countries.
But while I learned the language and culture of each, I regret never having studied in China. Others should learn from this. Knowledge is power. China has much more of it regarding the West than vice versa.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
A. This is the fast way to address trade imbalance.
B. This will address information asymmetry between the two countries.
C. This will save US the cost of providing free education to Chinese students.
D. This will enable US to change and improve Chinese education system.
答案 (1)
A. It's importance is underestimate.
B. It bears no importance at all.
C. It's insignificant.
D. It offers nothing new.
答案 (2)
In 2017, it was eight in 10.” In other words, the “brain drain” is now reversed.
A. As an example of intellectual capital loss for China
B. As an example of the directional change of "brain drain"
C. To laud the high quality of US education
D. To stress the importance of education in changing one's life
答案 (3)
A. There aren't any spy among Chinese students in US.
B. More US students should study in China.
C. Chinese culture is superior to western culture.
D. US should implement restrictions on Chinese students.
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：B解释：If the US managed to send more of its sons and daughters to China to study, part of the education imbalance would be rectified — and with it an information asymmetry that exists between the two countries. But as long as that doesn’t happen, the number of Americans with a working knowledge of China is likely to fall further behind the number of Chinese who are familiar with the US.
(2) 答案：A解释：Among the news of the escalating trade war between the US and China, the Open Doors report of the Institute for International Education last week got a bit snowed under. But its findings were head-turning.
(3) 答案：B解释：In 2017, it was eight in 10.” In other words, the “brain drain” is now reversed.
(4) 答案：B解释：But while I learned the language and culture of each, I regret never having studied in China. Others should learn from this. Knowledge is power. China has much more of it regarding the West than vice versa.