chapotraphouse

Not too long ago China was a respectable trading partner. Liberal media were praising how they cleaned Beijing air for the Olympics, how the government lifted people out of poverty, expanding tech startup scene, etc. China was the biggest market for Hollywood, GM, Ford, Apple, etc. Then China clamped down on the greed, started jailing billionaires, and did some protectionism policies to foster Chinese domestic cinema, tech, car industries etc. Around the same time Trumpo first administration was sputtering out of steam, they lost badly on the midterm election, so they literally couldn't pass any law through Yas Queen Pelosi congress. Seething at their own domestic impotence, Trump admins turned outward and need an outside enemy to demogauge, so the tariffs started, they tried to run color revolution in Hong Kong, and Xinjiang became a thing

HK in 2019 was a turning point in media and widespread villification of China

Early 2000s is when China really began to gain visibility on the world stage and be seen as "the country of the future" to anybody paying attention. 2018 is when the Hong Kong riots began and the US propaganda against China really kicked into high gear to demonize the country.

around 2018 was when the department of defense issued a directive to all higher education research institutions in the US, that if they allow the Confucius Institute to continue on campus and affiliate with the school (CI was the primary organization to facilitate study abroad programs in China), all DoD-linked research funds would be halted.

I was working at an R1 at the time, and that would have been immediately fatal to the university's budget. so they were unceremoniously booted off campus with a long email from the president saying, "thanks, but we must stay open because we are a public good" or some other handwringing bs.

I should know because I had been browsing their materials after just finishing my MSc. I thought I'd take a year or so to "just work" and then maybe go get a PhD in China in something unique to the field, related to my discipline, but impossible to study in the US.

then the door just slammed shut.

pretty sure some variation of that happened nationally.

IIRC, the Trump admin 1 made it very hard for Chinese students to study in the US and China retaliated in kind. Something to do with taking away their visas? They later used Covid as cover to do so.

in 2017, oil was discovered in Xinjiang

everything else is just downstream of that

does that mean like 1 semester or a full 4 year degree? I wish I had looked into more studying abroad opportunities.