Xi Jinping's daughter went to harvard?
Xi Jinping's daughter went to harvard?
Had someone mention this to me in conversation this weekend. Not something I knew, but honestly, not something I really cared about either. I just said a lot of Chinese nationals attend American university. A large part of the student population in the university/town I live in is Chinese. They followed up with "Sure, a specific class of Chinese though right?". My response being ,"Yeah wealthy business owners send their kids here." They said "I was just surprised, wouldn't he worry about her getting indoctrinated?" I said they get taught Marxism from like kindergarten, so no, probably not.
It really felt like a strange thing to bring up. I forget the context it came up in. This wasn't presented as some counter argument to anything, bit I do wonder where this little factoid comes from.
I see that RFA reported on her being outed as going to Harvard and the person getting jail time for it (for what its worth). Other then that, nothing substantial really.
So what's up with this? Is this some kind of lingering gotcha fed to libs to regurgitate when the topic is right?
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Yes, given that the U.S. is China's largest reading partner and they are 'in theory's supposed to be keeping good relations going forward (in keeping with current Chinese policy), it is not uncommon for leaders to send their kids to U.S. upper echelon schools, since almost every other world leader does the same. It's basically a 'get to know you' for the future financial and political elite. Even if it is doubtful that Xi's daughter will have anything to do with governing China in the future, it has it's advantages in just having something in common around the negotiation table, given that most of this is totally 'vibes-based' diplomacy anyways.
Chinese lawyers constitute the majority of post juris doctorate equivalent international law students in the US (LLM and MLS degrees). You can kind of think of these programs as Chinese Lawyers learning how to legally comply with constant and bizarre changes to US international trade laws. A good amount of these students are preparing themselves for a career in poltics and business. They don't really intend on practicing law but require the skillset to operate in their chosen field at a competive level. I would not be surprised if attending Harvard was to prepare for a career in politics.
Sure, but I've also known several Chinese exchange students who went to school in the U.S. because the Chinese universities were too competitive. I would guess while there will be some level of politics in the future coming from U.S. educated Chinese people, it really depends on how this international relationship continues to shift in the future. Imo, the vast majority of Chinese politics will be coming from inside the house, but doing consulting work in China between U.S. and Chinese firms will continue to be incredibly lucrative for the foreseeable future. That is where I would bet most of these students will end up. They may do politics after that, but at that level, international capital is at their fingertips, which is far more tempting than politics.
I can only speak to what I have seen in at my job which is pretty much what you describe for the average chinese post grad in Law. I'm not saying his daughter was definitely attending for a political career but speaking more to it being a pretty savvy thing to do in either case.
Anecdotally, I have heard the same about the competitive nature of chinese higher education admissions. The US has much less stringent requirements for international LLM programs (it's effectively automatic admit). Despite this fact, international student enrollment has been declining for the past 7 years. The US's adversarial policies towards the Chinese is having a substantial impact. The visa situation for students is a trainwreck and hard on these students. The US always finds a way to be an absolute nightmare for everyone.