Soft power, explained.
Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong Province, China (Lan Lin/Unsplash)
As Xi Jinping opens the doors to American youth, there will be more weight on their shoulders than bags with laptops and books.
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China’s invitation to US students could be a way to rewrite relationsChina’s invitation to US students could be a way to rewrite relations
Soon after arriving in Washington in August 2026, China’s President Xi Jinping invoked the historical partnership between the United States and China during the Second World War. “Like a river that never stops flowing, history never stands still,” Xi said. Ruminating on that shared memory, he beckoned to the future and extended an invitation that would take US-China relations forward. “I am glad to announce an invitation for 100,000 young Americans to visit China for exchanges and study in the coming five years,” he said.
That’s quite a number. So why is China keen to have so many young Americans visit and study in China? Has China recognised the value of having foreigners on its soil?
The straightforward answer is that apart from the governments, the two societies, and in particular youth, are being given the historic responsibility of stabilising US-China relations. In 2010, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the “Study in China” plan to host around 500,000 international students over the next decade. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there were roughly 490,000 international students in China.
Inviting American students to China helps Beijing portray the gracious host with sterling silverware … a visual depiction of the CCP’s staple story of “The East is rising, and the West is declining”.
Historically, China scholars such John King Fairbank argued (Opens in new window) that, given its geography, China developed a Sinocentric, culturally self-sufficient and isolated sense of self. Foreigners offered nothing invaluable. The pinnacle of cultural excellence was within China’s borders, or so was the zeitgeist.
The perceived value of foreigners for China has been changing slowly over the last two decades. China is deeply aware that the US and developed Anglophone world has an ability to attract the finest global talent. Opening the gates of its proverbial palace for international students sends an implicit message of presumed equality with the United States. Historically, the scar of being carved up by the West during the “century of humiliation” has inflicted a deep wound (Opens in new window) on the psyche of the CCP leadership. Inviting American students to China helps Beijing portray the gracious host with sterling silverware. It is a visual depiction of the CCP’s staple story of “The East is rising, and the West is declining”.
China has made tremendous leaps in prosperity and urbanisation. Leaving aside the current challenges of demographics, tepid consumption, real estate rigmarole, staggering provincial government debt, and overcapacity, China’s cities are models of modernisation. The metropolises of Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou boast skyscrapers that are modern day versions of medieval minarets. Beijing’s old Zhongguancun district (Opens in new window) has transformed into a critical node of artificial intelligence and scientific research. It has incubated a high-tech cluster with Baidu, ByteDance, Xiaomi and Lenovo in proximity, along with leading universities including Peking and Tsinghua.
Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China (Quan Jing/Unsplash)
Early this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited China. After a trip to Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou and other robotics factories, he was unsettled. After returning home, Merz implicitly compared (Opens in new window) China’s hyper-productivity with European work culture. He argued that Germany is “simply no longer productive enough” and the current living standards are unsustainable with “work-life balance and a four-day week”.
While urban prosperity for some Chinese people is touching astronomical levels, political culture and freedom remains hollow. China’s expenditure on internal security or “stability maintenance” has recently been the same as external security (Opens in new window), if not more in some years. A senior doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, who frequently visits China for rowing competitions, described to me that Chinese cities are gilded cages. Most roundabouts, streets and junctions are littered with security cameras keeping a close watch on everyday urban life.
Beijing’s enthusiasm for inviting American students is a good start to creating better relations – but whether genuine bridges and cultural ties will form is another matter.
About the author
Ved Shinde
Ved Shinde is an incoming doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge. He has previously been associated with the Asia Society Policy Institute and the American Enterprise Institute.
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