Journos as usual get it wrong trying to lay the decline of US students in China at the feet of the trade war and Trump even though numbers have been flat under Trump and began declining after 2010-11. The reason for the decline is simple 1/n https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-students-love-affair-with-china-cools-as-political-tensions-rise-11610802000?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/EdFXk72HRt

China does not provide a good educational product or experience for most foreign students. They're are many reasons for this but let me lay out done if the reasons this article is so deficient and having taught in China for 9 year at a university dealing with foreign students 2/n

1. Unless you are there specifically and primarily to learn the Chinese language, Chinese universities do a pretty poor job of providing an educational product foreign students can use either to transfer back to their home country or to stay in China. Many reasons for that 3/n

2. Students for the most part do not have good cultural experiences. From the explicit racism faced by non white students to the quasi segregation (forced and practiced) between foreign and Chinese students, foreign students do not have a good experience. 4/n

There are lots of sub and offshoot reasons but those are the two umbrella reasons and I could tell lots of stories. Most importantly and I can tell you from the inside this was very clear, students and schools talk. A lot. When foreign students and did not have a good 5/n

Experience it showed up in subsequent year numbers. It was obvious. It's like not getting repeat customers. The numbers peaked when they did because China made a big push to get foreign students those years. However, two things killed their ability to get more. 6/n

First, students went back and told if bad experiences. Second, Xi got elected and yes, they started cracking down everywhere in everything. China struggles a lot to get paying students from developed countries so spends a lot on scholarships on students from emerging markets 7/n

Those students who are very very good see it almost purely as a path to a free degree. Coming from emerging markets, they get the worst of Chinese racism and so leave having no love for China. Trust has nothing to do with Trump or the trade war which I know is not headlines 8/n

As I always say it is ready for journos to slap trade war and Trump at the top of everything but that really had nothing to do with it. What do I know though: I only worked in China dealing with foreign students for 9 years.