China has warned its people to think twice before visiting the United States, citing trade tensions. It also told its students to be careful about studying there and accused two American universities of hacking. And it has vowed to cut down on the number of Hollywood films that can be shown in China.

中国以贸易紧张为由，警告国内民众赴美旅游要三思而行。中国还对学生说，赴美留学要谨慎，并指责两所美国大学非法侵入中国网络，并且表示要减少好莱坞电影的进口数量。

The trade war between the United States and China is already eroding far more than just economic ties. The rapid expansion of the battlefield, from trade to culture and education, underscores how fragile the relationship between the United States and China has become.

被美中贸易战损害的远不止经济关系。受影响的领域已迅速从贸易扩大到文化和教育，凸显了美中关系已变得何等脆弱。

The United States, for its part, has revoked some Chinese student and scholar visas, as part of a broader targeting of international students by the Trump administration. While the moves were not directly related to the trade dispute, some conservatives have suggested linking them: Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, posted online last week that it was a “great idea” to expel all Chinese students as retaliation for China hitting back with its own tariffs.

美国方面已吊销部分中国学生和学者的签证，这是特朗普政府针对国际学生的更广泛打击行动的一部分。虽然这些行动与贸易争端并无直接联系，但一些保守派人士提出应该将两者联系起来：特朗普总统的儿子小唐纳德·特朗普上周在网上发帖称，作为对中国以加征关税回击的报复，将所有留美中国学生驱逐是个“好主意”。

For decades, the flow of students, travelers, artists and businesspeople between the countries served as a steadying force, even when political or economic tensions flared. But as relations have deteriorated in recent years, both countries have started to turn those ties into bargaining chips, too.

几十年来，两国之间的学生、旅行者、艺术家，以及商务人士的往来对双边关系一直起着稳定作用，即使是在政治或经济紧张关系加剧的时候。但随着近年来两国关系恶化，双方已开始将这些关系变成谈判的筹码。

“This is an emotional reaction, not a rational one,” said Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar. “Rationally, the more tense China-U.S. trade relations become, the more both sides need to keep an overall balance, to avoid a full-on conflict.”

“这是一种情绪化的反应，不是理性的反应，”上海的国际关系学者沈丁立说。“从理性的角度来看，中美贸易关系变得越紧张，双方就越需要保持一种总体的平衡，以免发生全面的冲突。”

Until recently, both the United States and China had been trying to rehabilitate those softer exchanges, perhaps because they had gotten a glimpse of how dangerous their absence could be.

直到不久前，美国和中国都曾一直在努力恢复这些更软性的交流，或许是因为双方已对缺少这些交流会带来多么危险的后果有所认识。

2023年，时任美国总统的拜登与中国领导人习近平在加州伍德赛德举行了会晤。

During Mr. Trump’s first term and the early years of President Joseph R. Biden’s, relations plunged to their lowest point in decades, inflamed by the coronavirus pandemic, disputes over Taiwan and an alleged spy balloon. At the same time, the yearslong closure of China’s borders during the pandemic led to a freeze of interpersonal exchanges.

在特朗普上次担任总统期间和拜登担任总统的早期，受新冠病毒大流行、台湾问题以及所谓中国间谍气球事件的影响，两国关系跌到了几十年来的最低点。同时，中国在疫情期间曾关闭边界数年，导致民间交流停止。

When Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden finally met in person in 2023 to try and thaw the relationship, they pledged to restore some of those exchanges, as a way to shore up ties. Mr. Xi said he would invite more American students to China. American officials promised that they welcomed Chinese students.

当习近平和拜登终于在2023年会面，以试图缓和两国关系时，他们曾承诺部分恢复相关交流，以此来巩固双边关系。习近平曾说，他会邀请更多的美国学生来华学习。美国官员则承诺美国欢迎中国学生。

Economic and political considerations were always inextricable from these détentes. Amid a lackluster economy, China last year allowed the highest number of foreign movies to be imported since 2019; official media noted that imported films would improve box office sales. American musicians who performed in China brought tourism to their host cities. China was eager to project itself as open as it tried to woo back foreign investors.

经济和政治的考量从来都与这些缓和密不可分。中国经济目前处于低迷状态，政府去年允许进口的外国电影数量创下了2019年以来的新高；中国官媒指出，进口电影提升了票房收入。前往中国演出的美国歌手为他们巡演的城市带来了旅游业。随着中国试图吸引外国投资者，它曾渴望展现这种开放的形象。

In the United States, Chinese students — who make up one-quarter of international students there — are a vital source of funding for American universities. In 2023, they contributed about $14.3 billion to the American economy, according to U.S. government data.

在美国读书的中国学生占美国国际学生总数的25%，他们是美国大学的重要资金来源。据美国政府的数据，2023年，中国留学生为美国经济贡献了约143亿美元。

Still, both sides vaunted the ties as worthwhile in their own right. “The China-U.S. relationship has experienced ups and downs,” an article in Chinese state media said, “but China’s steadfast commitment to promoting friendly exchanges between the peoples of China and the U.S. has remained unchanged.”

尽管如此，双方都称赞这些民间交流本身就具有重要价值。中国官媒发表的一篇文章写道：“中美关系在过去虽然经历跌宕，但中国始终致力于推进中美人民友好交往的愿望没有变。”

Now, those promises are fading.

如今，这些承诺正在逐渐消失。

To retaliate for American tariffs, China has announced levies of its own, export controls, bans on certain American companies doing business in China — and the import of fewer Hollywood movies.

中国为报复美国的关税，已宣布加征自己的关税，对美国采取出口管制措施，禁止某些美国公司在华经营，并减少进口好莱坞电影。

The government made clear that it expected — and might encourage — the economic frostiness to spill over to attitudes toward the United States in general. The tariffs would “inevitably reduce how favorably Chinese audiences view American films,” the national film administration said.

中国政府的态度很明确，它希望——甚至可能鼓励——经济关系的紧张蔓延到中国人对美国的总体态度。国家电影局已表示，对中国加征关税“势必会令国内观众对美国影片好感度进一步降低”。

中国电影局说，对中国加征关税“势必会令国内观众对美国影片好感度进一步降低”。

A day earlier, China’s culture and tourism ministry had warned travelers to “fully assess the risks” of visiting the United States, given the “deterioration of Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations.”

一天前，中国文化和旅游部警告游客，“由于中美经贸关系恶化”，要“充分评估赴美旅游风险”。

A separate warning from the education ministry did not mention the trade war, instead focusing on legislation passed in Ohio targeting academic collaborations with China. But it was published the same day as the tourism warning, and was the first alert the ministry had issued to Chinese students going abroad since 2021.

教育部另行发布的警告没有提到贸易战，而是强调了俄亥俄州通过的一项针对中美学术合作的立法。但教育部的警告与上述旅游警告是同一天发布的，而且是教育部自2021年以来首次发布的留学预警。

On Tuesday, Chinese state media separately accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of taking part in cyberattacks on the Asian Winter Games, which China hosted earlier this year. (The authorities also said they had added three people supposedly affiliated with the U.S. National Security Agency to a wanted list. Hashtags encouraging people to report clues about American spies trended on social media.)

中国官媒周二还指责加州大学和弗吉尼亚理工大学参与了针对中国今年早些时候主办的亚洲冬季运动会的网络攻击。（当局还表示已将三名据称与美国国家安全局有关联的人员列入了通缉名单。鼓励民众举报美国间谍线索的标签已在社交媒体上走红。）

The universities and the American Embassy in Beijing did not immediately comment.

这些大学和美国驻华大使馆均未立即回复置评请求。

Wang Li, a study abroad consultant in Beijing, said that she had been inundated by messages from parents and students in the last week. She hosted a livestream with 1,800 viewers to discuss the education ministry’s warning on Monday, where she addressed questions about whether people could still apply for visas or whether it was advisable to do so.

王力是北京的一名留学顾问，她说，她在过去一周里收到了大量来自家长和学生的留言。她在周一主持了一场讨论教育部警告的直播，观看者达1800人，她在直播中回答了是否还能申请留学签证以及是否应该申请等问题。

“This was all very sudden,” Ms. Wang said in an interview, referring to both the ministry’s warning and the American government’s visa revocations of many international students, including from China. “So it has caused panic.”

“这一切来得太突然了，”王力在接受采访时说，她指的是教育部的警告，以及美国政府吊销包括中国学生在内的众多国际学生签证的做法。“所以已经引起了恐慌。”

On Chinese social media, some users have said they were debating whether to cancel trips to the United States over the upcoming five-day May Day holiday. They cited fears of being turned away at the border and of general animosity toward China.

一些用户在中国社交媒体上表示，他们正在考虑是否取消在即将到来的五一节假期的赴美行程。他们给的理由包括担心被美国拒绝入境，以及美国对中国的普遍敌意。

在比佛利山庄的Via Rodeo拍照，摄于今年4月。

Da Wei, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said the travel and study notices were a warning shot to Washington from the Chinese government. He noted that they were not outright bans but also acknowledged that the countries were on the route to escalation, and that China was signaling that it could go further.

北京清华大学国际关系教授达巍说，旅行预警和留学预警是中国政府向华盛顿发出的警告信号。他指出，预警不是彻底禁止，但也承认两国关系正在走向不断恶化，而且，中国正在发出可能采取进一步行动的信号。

“Once you lose control, everything could happen, and it could be dangerous,” he said. “So I think the logic behind the Chinese side’s actions is kind of warning that you should not expand it to other areas.”

“一旦失去控制，一切都可能发生，而且可能很危险，”他说。“所以我认为中方行动背后的逻辑是某种警告，不要将贸易冲突扩展到其他领域。”

But Professor Da also noted that there were real reasons for Chinese students to worry about going to the United States. Government officials under both Democratic and Republican administrations have accused Chinese scholars of being spies. Mr. Da said that he himself has been stopped for extended questioning at the U.S. border multiple times.

但达巍也指出，有真实的理由让中国留学生对前往美国感到担忧。无论是民主党还是共和党政府的官员，都曾指责中国学者从事间谍活动。达巍说，他本人也在美国入境时多次被扣留，接受长时间的盘问。

Florida has restricted public universities from hiring Chinese citizens. A bill in the House of Representatives would bar any Chinese nationals from studying in the United States, though it is unlikely to pass.

佛罗里达州已禁止公立大学聘用中国公民。联邦众议院的一项法案将禁止任何中国公民在美国学习，尽管该法案不太可能获得通过。

中国学生在北京的美国大使馆外排队等候面签，摄于2012年。

Republican lawmakers have also demanded that several universities provide information on the finances and research of their Chinese students.

共和党的立法者们还要求几所大学提供有关中国留学生从学校获得的资助和在学校从事的研究等信息。

Ms. Wang, the study abroad consultant, said the tensions had scared off even people who were most eager to build connections with the United States.

留学顾问王力说，紧张关系甚至吓跑了那些最渴望与美国建立联系的人。

“Many students, even if they look up to the freedom, tolerance and rich academic resources of the United States, feel they have to change directions,” she said.

“即使他们仰慕美国的自由、宽容，以及丰富的学术资源，许多学生也觉得他们不得不改变选择，”她说。

On her livestream, she urged her viewers to keep their options open by also applying to Australian or European universities as backup.

她在直播中鼓励观众给自己留下选择余地，同时申请澳大利亚或欧洲的大学作为备选。

“Leave yourself a safety net, OK?” she said.

“给自己留个安全网，不是吗？”她说。