Spy label on Chinese students will harm US
By labeling some Chinese students and scholars in the United States spies and subsequently holding a US congressional hearing on the issue recently, the US politicians are refusing to see the forest for the trees.
About 1.08 million overseas students are studying in colleges in the US, according to the Institute of International Education report issued in November. Of them 350,755 are Chinese students, accounting for 32.5 percent of all overseas students in the US. In addition, about 40,000 Chinese students are studying in US primary and middle schools.
Suppose Chinese families on average spend $45,000 on each student's education, they would contribute about $17.9 billion each year to the US economy, excluding the expenditure of those students and their relatives on air fare, tourism and other fields.
