Chinese Students in U.S. Worry About New Political Shift in Their Homeland

Han Min, a student from Peking at UCLA, has been an avid reader of China’s official People’s Daily in recent weeks, and he hasn’t liked what he’s seen.

The paper’s rhetoric “reminds people of the Cultural Revolution,” Han said. “We don’t want this. The Chinese students here want to go back to China. (But) they want to go back to China and work in a good situation. . . . People are not happy about what happened.”

The recent removal of the reformist Hu Yaobang as Communist Party leader, action against prominent intellectuals and a harsh new tone in China’s media have provoked deep worries among many of the estimated 17,000 Chinese nationals studying or doing research in the United States.

Most of these individuals--the cream of the country’s intellectual elite--are here to gain scientific and technical knowledge, but in the process they also have seen good and bad sides of American life that influence their perceptions of their homeland.

China hopes that they will return to help with modernization, and many express a strong desire to do so. But the dramatic events at home--which began with student demonstrations for increased freedom and democracy but developed into a tightening of ideological control--raise the possibility that growing numbers may seek to remain here.

“I plan to go back, but it still depends on the situation over there,” a recent graduate of a UCLA science master’s degree program said. “If I feel I really can do something there, then I will go back. I don’t want to go back and have something like the Cultural Revolution happen.”

Worries about China’s course have prompted some Chinese students and scholars in this country to take the unprecedented step of writing an open letter to China’s Communist Party Central Committee and State Council deploring the recent political changes.

At least one U.S.-based Chinese-language newspaper, the Centre Daily News, published the letter and a list of 483 names of Chinese nationals at 45 American colleges and universities who organizers said had signed it. Organizers said 496 more students and scholars, identified by campus but not by name, also had endorsed the document. Some backers of the letter said it represents the sentiments of many more.

“Some very important things happened in China during this month, things which I thought are not very good for China’s political and economic reform,” said Bai Gang, a Caltech graduate student in applied physics who signed the letter. “If we just sat here and didn’t do anything, probably the government would think that the students in the United States agree with what they did.”

The letter praises Hu’s “outstanding contributions” to China’s economic and political reforms and expresses concern about the prospects for their continuation.

“We feel that the ultra-leftist practice of labeling people arbitrarily and finding faults with others again dominates the areas of communication, ideology and culture,” the letter says. “We fear the recurrence of the political situation of the Cultural Revolution, in which ‘ruthless struggle and merciless criticism’ were rampant.”

Drawn Up on East Coast

Signers at Caltech said the letter was drawn up on the East Coast the same day that Hu, who had taken the lead in promoting political reform, was replaced as general secretary by Premier Zhao Ziyang, who has been primarily identified with economic reform. The letter was released just three days later.

Only a few West Coast campuses were represented, but the letter carried the names of 26 students or scholars at Caltech, eight at the University of Southern California, 14 at UC San Diego and one at Stanford. There are about 60 students and 20 scholars from China at Caltech, about 180 students and 70 scholars at USC and 225 students and 75 scholars at UCLA.

Han said he knew nothing of the letter until he saw it published in the Centre Daily News.

“I recognized lots of people I know, including some friends and former classmates,” he said. “I was excited. If people go ahead to do this, why not me?”

Han said he is among a number of UCLA students who have turned in their signatures for a possible second public listing of names.

While concern about developments in China is widespread, there is little unanimity among Chinese students and scholars about what is really happening, how serious the situation is and whether the open letter is a good idea.

“The country is still going to be open economically,” said a USC graduate student in electrical engineering, who had nothing to do with the letter but still declined to be quoted by name. “Premier (and acting General Secretary) Zhao Ziyang is saying everything is going to be the same in the economic field. That counts for a lot.”

Otto Schnepp, a USC chemistry professor who was the science counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Peking from 1980 to 1982, said that many research scholars--mostly middle-aged people who come for just one or two years of training and research--have already returned to China and helped establish an improved academic environment.

But only now are significant numbers of graduate students, trained in the more innovative American style, beginning to finish Ph.D. programs, he said.

“Those students are the real potential for China to move forward,” Schnepp said. “(Now) this plan is threatened. I have heard of several who were close to returning. Their knee-jerk reaction is to try to stay longer.

“Students are scared. I think the cost to China is enormous. . . . In my opinion, those 17,000 will try to delay their return. What happens in China in the next two, three, four or five years will determine very much how many people want to go back, and how many people go back with enthusiasm.”

Deng Xiaomin, president of the Caltech Chinese Student Assn., said that Chinese students cannot know all the details of what is happening now in their homeland.

“Because we are from China, we love our country and we want it to develop,” Deng said. “But I personally prefer a different way to express my feeling, my concern. I don’t think the open letter is the right way.”

Deng, who is studying for a Ph.D. in applied mechanics, said he expects to return to China in three or four years to teach in a university.

“Here, if you have a job, you can get a good house and a car,” Deng said. “But you work here just for money, I guess. China needs young people. We can work to develop our country. I like the challenge. I think I should do my best to contribute to the country.”

Leo Orleans, a consultant with the Washington-based Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China, said that according to the official Chinese press, China has sent more than 30,000 government-backed students and scholars to foreign countries since 1978, and about half have completed their courses and returned.

Orleans estimated that about two-thirds of these officially sponsored individuals have come to the United States, while about 8,000 privately sponsored students also have come here. He estimated that of these people, about 10,000 government-sponsored people and 3,000 privately sponsored students have returned home.

Government-sponsored students generally come under a “J-1” visa category that requires them to return to China after finishing their studies. Sometimes, however, people may find ways around this restriction, such as by applying for political asylum or marrying an American citizen.

“What effects these recent developments will have--even on the J-1s--is unknown,” Orleans said. “Until now, they have returned. They might try harder to find ways to stay.”

Linda Reed, director of special projects for the Washington-based National Assn. for Foreign Student Affairs, said it is clear that for several years Chinese officials have wished that more students would come back more quickly.

Concern Voiced

U.S. officials have said that when Vice President George Bush visited Peking in 1985, Chinese Vice Premier Li Peng voiced concern that Chinese students seemed to be staying too long in the United States. Recent events have raised anxiety that the Chinese may tighten controls over who can study abroad.

Most students and scholars from China, even if they are delaying their return home, express a strong desire to assist their country’s development.

“Ever since I came here, I had no intention to stay here permanently,” said a UCLA science graduate student who declined to be identified. “I feel more comfortable in China. Although there are political restrictions there, life is pretty easy.

“You find yourself much more important there. You are badly needed. I have learned a lot here, and I feel obligated to pass my knowledge on to fellow students. . . . But at the present time, it may not be the best thing to go right after you graduate. I would like to do another year of postgraduate research.”

This student said he wants to do such research to gain more experience and thus have better career prospects in China, and also to save up some money before going back. “If you save several thousand dollars here, it means a lot when you get back,” he said. “The difference is incredibly large.”

Some Chinese students, however, say they see no reason for people not to go home after finishing their studies.

‘May Be Misunderstanding’

“There may be some misunderstanding between old people and young people in China,” a USC graduate student said. “But that does not mean people will not go back.”

Schnepp commented that some signers of the open letter may have become so comfortable with the openness of American society that they have forgotten the realities of China. They may have taken a greater risk than they realize, he said.

“These young kids--it’s very dangerous for them to do this, for their future,” Schnepp said.

A UCLA student who said he has added his name to a yet-unreleased list of new signers of the letter doesn’t think the risk is high.

“I do not have political ambition,” the student said. “I’m just (planning) an academic career back in China. Even if they identify my name in the paper and label me as unreliable, that’s OK. I can still teach and do my research.”

Risk Worth Taking

This student added, however, that he thinks some risk is worth taking to try to make academic life in China more productive.

“The political environment is very, very important,” he said. “You Americans are not accustomed to that. It doesn’t matter whether Democrats or Republicans are in power. But in China, politics affects your everyday life.”

The openness of scholarly communication and the allocation of research funding by scientific criteria impress many Chinese as positive features of the United States.

Problems of Crime, Drugs

They also often comment on the friendliness of people on campus. But they tend to see Americans as inexplicably refusing to deal seriously with the problems of crime and drugs.

Many knew of these troubles before coming.

“Everybody told me the United States is pretty dangerous,” said the USC electrical engineering graduate student, who then related the story of his arrival at Los Angeles International Airport. “When I went out of the doors of the airport I felt (it was) very dangerous: ‘All right, now I’m going into American society, and at any moment someone may attack me.’ After a few days I felt differently. It’s not the case. In the USC area it is much more dangerous than China. But it’s not as dangerous as I thought before I came.”

Little things often strike people as surprising.

“My first impression was that cars don’t honk,” a science graduate student at UCLA commented. “And you can see birds walking around without people catching them and eating them. Not that every Chinese would catch pigeons and eat them, but there are some.”

Mysteries of American Life

Some search the mysteries of American life for clues to help China become rich and strong.

“I think the Chinese people are hard-working and intelligent, but we still could not improve our living standard,” said a Caltech student who signed the open letter. “There were so many political movements. So we thought something was wrong with the system, but we didn’t know where the trouble came from. We thought that we didn’t have enough science and technology. After we came here, the facts forced us to think maybe it’s not just science and technology we need. It’s something more elementary.”

While most students and scholars were already part of China’s intellectual elite before ever leaving their country, for some the opportunity to come to America amounts to a second chance in life.

Cultural Revolution

A woman from Peking now doing cancer research at UCLA said she had only an elementary school education when the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 was launched and schools were shut down.

“I stayed at home for three years, then I went to a middle school,” she recalled. “After one year I graduated. I was sent to be a farmer in the north part of China. I stayed there for four years. Then I worked in a factory as an electrical technician about three years.”

This woman said that both her parents had graduated from American universities in the 1950s and returned to China “to do something for the country.”

“During the Cultural Revolution, they were criticized and separated,” she said.

Then, after China began opening up to the world in the late 1970s, her parents arranged for an uncle in the United States to sponsor her to come here.

“All the years I was supposed to study were just wasted,” she said. “They wanted me to learn more. I didn’t get the chance to go to school. So why not?”

‘Very Wise Decision’

She spoke no English when she arrived, but studied first in an intensive English course, then at Pasadena City College and finally at UCLA.

“It’s a very wise decision to send students abroad to study,” she said. “But how many students come back will really depend on the policy over there.”

Many students, when they speak of returning to China, express strong feelings of patriotism.

“I feel I have some responsibility to help the country develop--to do something for our people,” another USC electrical engineering graduate student said. “I cannot say my personal role will be very important. But in China there’s a proverb: ‘If many people gather firewood, the fire’s flame will be high.’ ”