One night in 1978, President Jimmy Carter got a phone call at 3 a.m. from a top adviser who was visiting China.

1978年的一个晚上，吉米·卡特总统在凌晨三点接到了一位正在中国访问的高级顾问的电话。

“Deng Xiaoping insisted I call you now, to see if you would permit 5,000 Chinese students to come to American universities,” said the official, Frank Press.

“邓小平坚持要我现在给你打电话，看你能不能允许5000名中国学生到美国大学学习，”这位名叫弗兰克·普雷斯的官员说。

“Tell him to send 100,000,” Mr. Carter replied.

“叫他送10万人过来，”卡特当时回答道。

By Christmastime that year, the first group of 52 Chinese students had arrived in the United States, just ahead of the formal establishment of U.S.-Chinese diplomatic relations on New Year’s Day. A month later, Mr. Deng, China’s top leader, made a historic visit to America during which he watched John Denver sing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and was photographed wearing a cowboy hat.

到那年圣诞节时，第一批52名中国学生已经抵达美国，正好赶在元旦美中正式建立外交关系之前。一个月后，中国最高领导人邓小平对美国进行了历史性访问，期间他观看了约翰·丹佛演唱《乡村路带我回家》(Take Me Home, Country Roads)，并戴着牛仔帽拍了照片。

It’s almost hard to believe how little contact there had been between the United States and modern China before that. The Sinologist John K. Fairbank wrote in 1971: “Since 1950 Washington has officially sent more men to the moon than it has to China.” The visits by Mr. Deng and, more important, by those first Chinese students began a new chapter that would fundamentally change China — and the world. The United States gained access to a vast market and talent pool, while China found a model and a partner for transforming its economy.

在那之前，美国和现代中国之间的接触少到令人难以置信。汉学家费正清在1971年写道：“自1950年以来，华盛顿正式派往月球的人比派往中国的人多。”邓小平的访问，更重要的是，第一批中国学生的赴美，开启了从根本上改变中国和世界的新篇章。美国获得了巨大的市场和人才库，而中国则找到了经济转型的模式和合作伙伴。

Now that chapter has closed, after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would begin “aggressively” revoking the visas of Chinese students.

如今，在特朗普政府周三宣布将开始“大力”撤销中国学生的签证后，这一篇章已经结束。

For the millions of Chinese who have studied in the United States, myself included, it is a sobering and disheartening development. It marks a turning point that America, long a beacon of openness and opportunity, would start shutting its doors to Chinese who aspire to a good education and a future in a society that values freedom and human dignity.

对于包括我在内的数以百万计曾在美国留学的中国人来说，这样的事态发展令人警醒和沮丧。这标志着一个转折点：长期以来一直是开放和机遇灯塔的美国，将开始对渴望在一个重视自由和人类尊严的社会中得到良好教育和未来的中国人关闭大门。

By curbing people-to-people exchanges, President Trump is taking a decisive step toward decoupling from China. To treat Chinese students and professionals in science and technology broadly not as contributors, but as potential security risks, reflects a foreign policy driven more by insecurity and retreat than by the self-assurance of a global leader.

通过限制人际交流，特朗普总统正朝着与中国脱钩的方向迈出决定性的一步。将中国学生和科技专业人士一概视为潜在的安全风险，而非贡献者，反映出美国的外交政策更多受到不安全感和退缩的驱动，而非全球领导者的自信。

1979 年，邓小平和美国总统吉米·卡特在华盛顿。

The reaction to the new policy inside China, reflected in the U.S. Embassy’s social media accounts, was mixed. Some commenters thanked the United States for “sending China’s brightest minds back.” Others drew historical parallels, comparing the Trump administration’s isolationist turn to China’s Ming and Qing dynasties — once global powers that declined after turning inward and were ultimately defeated in foreign invasions. One commenter remarked that the policy’s narrow-mindedness would “make America small again.”

从美国大使馆的社交媒体账户上可以看出，中国国内对这项新政策的反应褒贬不一。一些评论感谢美国“把中国最杰出的人才送回来”。另一些人则将特朗普政府的孤立主义转向与中国的明清两代进行了历史对比——在这两个朝代，中国曾经是全球大国，在闭关锁国后衰落，最终被外国入侵者击败。一位评论者说，这种狭隘的政策会“让美国再次变小”。

The shift also comes when many young Chinese, disillusioned by political repression and economic stagnation under Xi Jinping’s leadership, are trying to flee the country to seek freedom and opportunities.

与此同时，许多中国年轻人对习近平领导下的政治压迫和经济停滞感到失望，正试图逃离中国，去寻求自由和机会。

“Xi is pushing many of the best and the brightest to leave China,” said Thomas E. Kellogg, executive director of Georgetown’s Center for Asian Law and a leading scholar of legal reform in China. “The U.S. should be taking advantage of this historic brain drain, not shutting the door to many talented Chinese young people.”

“习近平正在促使许多最优秀、最聪明的人离开中国，”乔治敦大学亚洲法律中心执行主任、研究中国法律改革的著名学者托马斯·凯洛格说。“美国应该利用这一历史性的人才流失，而不是对许多有才华的中国年轻人关上大门。”

The number of Chinese students in the United States dropped to about 277,000 in the 2023-24 academic year, a 25 percent decline from its peak four years earlier, according to government data. Students from China remained the second-largest group of international students, after those from India. In fact, applications for postgraduation temporary employment permits rose 12 percent in 2023-24 from the prior year, signaling more interest in working in the United States despite the challenges.

政府数据显示，2023–2024学年在美中国学生降至27.7万人左右，比四年前的峰值下降了25%。中国学生仍然是仅次于印度学生的第二大国际学生群体。事实上，2023–24年度毕业后临时工作许可的申请比前一年增加了12%，这表明尽管面临挑战，仍有更多的人对在美国工作感兴趣。

The new visa policy will leave many of these students with little choice but to leave, or at the least reconsider their future in the United States.

新的签证政策将使这些学生中的许多人别无选择，只能离开，或者至少重新考虑他们在美国的未来。

I interviewed a doctoral candidate in computer science at a top American university, a young man from China who first dreamed of studying in America at 17, when he began to question Chinese government propaganda. He arrived eight years ago and never seriously considered returning. But now, facing the threat of visa revocation, he said he was no longer sure if he could — or even wanted to — stay.

我采访了一位在美国顶尖大学攻读计算机科学的博士生，他是一位来自中国的年轻人，17岁时他开始质疑中国政府的宣传，并第一次梦想到美国留学。八年前，他来到这里，从未认真考虑过回中国。但现在，面对签证被吊销的威胁，他说他不再确定自己是否能够——甚至是否愿意——留在美国。

乔治敦大学亚洲法律中心执行主任托马斯·凯洛格说："美国应该利用这一历史性的人才外流，而不是对许多有才华的中国年轻人关上大门。

“America doesn’t feel worth it anymore,” he said, asking me not to identify him for fear of retribution from Washington. The immigration process is fraught with anxiety, he said, and the returns no longer seem to justify the stress. He said he was exploring work visa options in Canada, Australia and Western Europe, even though he has a job offer from a big tech company on the West Coast.

“感觉美国已经不值得了，”他说，他要求我不要透露他的姓名，以免遭到华盛顿的报复。他说，移民过程充满了焦虑，为了这件事承担如此大的压力似乎是不值得的。他说，他正在研究加拿大、澳大利亚和西欧的工作签证选择，尽管他得到了西海岸一家大型科技公司的工作邀请。

“The pay might be lower,” he said, “but those countries offer more personal freedom.”

他说：“工资可能低一些，但是那些国家提供更多的个人自由。”

His experience is in stark contrast to that of Dong Jielin, who was among the first Chinese students to come to the United States after the Cultural Revolution. When she arrived at Carnegie Mellon in 1982 on a U.S. scholarship, she knew little about the country beyond what the Chinese state media had portrayed: a capitalist society in perpetual crisis and a people living in misery.

他的经历与董洁林形成鲜明对比，她是文革后第一批来美国的中国学生之一。1982年获得美国奖学金来到卡耐基梅隆大学时，她对这个国家知之甚少，除了中国官方媒体的描述：资本主义社会危机四伏，人民生活在水深火热之中。

It didn’t take long for her perception to shift. “The moment I walked into a supermarket, I could see that life here was far from miserable,” she told me in an interview. Encounters with Americans quickly dispelled other myths as well. “They were not vicious or hostile,” she said. “They were warm and kind.”

没过多久，她的看法就改变了。“一走进超市就能看出这里的生活一点也不悲惨，”她在采访中告诉我。与美国人的接触也很快消除了其他误解。“他们并不恶毒，也没有敌意，”她说。“他们热情而善良。”

Ms. Dong went on to earn a doctoral degree in physics, build a career in finance and technology, become a U.S. citizen and raise a family.

董洁林后来获得了物理学博士学位，在金融和技术领域开创事业，成为了美国公民，组建了家庭。

The U.S. government has good reasons to worry about national security risks from China, including espionage and intellectual property theft. The Federal Bureau of Investigation calls the Chinese government the most prolific sponsor of talent recruitment programs that aim to transfer scientific and technological breakthroughs to China.

美国政府有充分的理由担心来自中国的国家安全风险，包括间谍活动和知识产权盗窃。联邦调查局称，中国政府是旨在将科技突破转移到中国的人才招聘项目的最大支持者。

It also makes sense to block people with ties to China’s military industrial complex.

阻止与中国军工联合体有联系的人也是有道理的。

But it’s something else entirely to deny visas to 18-year-old students simply because they are Chinese and hope to pursue a STEM degree in the United States.

但是，仅仅因为希望在美国攻读STEM学位的18岁学生是中国人，就拒绝给他们发放签证，就完全是另一回事了。

American officials often say they aim to distinguish between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people. That distinction was emphasized during Mr. Trump’s first term. It’s largely absent now.

美国官员经常说，他们的目标是区分中国共产党和中国人民。这种区别在特朗普的第一个任期内得到了强调。现在基本上不存在了。

2023–24年，在美国的中国留学生人数降至27.7万人，但他们仍是仅次于印度留学生的第二大留学生群体。

U.S. policy now targets anyone with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. But the party has nearly 100 million members, about one in 14 Chinese. And most children in China grow up as members of the Young Pioneers and Communist Youth League, school-based party organizations. It’s just the way of life in a country ruled by a Leninist party.

美国的政策现在针对任何与中国共产党有联系的人。但中共有近1亿党员，每14个中国人里就有一名党员。在中国，大多数孩子都是少先队员和共青团成员，这是党在学校里的组织。这就是列宁主义政党统治下的国家的生活方式。

As one commenter put it on the U.S. Embassy’s WeChat account, “How could any Chinese not be associated with the Party?”

正如美国大使馆微信账号上的一位评论者所说，“中国人怎么可能和党没有关系呢？”

The policy is also very likely to backfire.

这项政策也很可能适得其反。

Researchers found that Chinese undergraduates in American universities were more predisposed to favor liberal democracy than their peers in China. However, they said, exposure to xenophobic, anti-Chinese comments by Americans significantly decreased their belief that political reforms are desirable for China. Those who experienced discrimination were more likely to reject democratic values in favor of autocratic ones.

研究人员发现，在美国大学就读的中国大学生原本比在中国的同龄人更倾向于支持自由民主。然而，他们说，经历过美国人的仇外、反华言论，这些大大降低了他们对中国需要政治改革的信念。那些经历过歧视的人更有可能拒绝民主价值观，转而支持专制价值观。

Chinese who have studied abroad also face growing suspicion at home. The government and some employers believe that exposure to Western values makes their fellow Chinese politically unreliable.

留学海外的中国人在国内也面临着越来越多的怀疑。政府和一些雇主认为，接触西方价值观会让他们的中国同胞在政治上变得不可靠。

Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of the appliance giant Gree Electric, said recently that her company would never hire a graduate from a foreign university. “There are spies among them,” she said.

家电巨头格力电器董事长董明珠近日表示，她的公司永远不会聘用外国大学毕业生。“海归派里面有间谍，”她说。

On the Chinese internet, some people compared her to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who announced the visa policy.

在中国的互联网上，一些人将她与宣布签证政策的国务卿鲁比奥相提并论。

Dong Jielin, the former student who was among the first to come to the United States, said the experience had a profound impact on her life, giving her the opportunity to explore the frontiers of science and technology.

作为第一批赴美留学生的董洁林说，赴美经历对她的生活产生了深远的影响，使她有机会探索科技的前沿。

It is understandable, she said, that the government is raising screening standards for student visas. “But I believe the vast majority of those who stay in the U.S. will, over time, become loyal American citizens,” she said, just like herself.

她说，政府提高学生签证的审查标准是可以理解的。“但我相信，随着时间的推移，绝大多数留在美国的人会成为忠诚的美国公民，”她说，就像她自己一样。