Long Read: Geopolitical Clashes Entangle China’s Science Grad Students

More and more young researchers, especially those with degrees from universities under scrutiny from Washington, are having trouble getting accepted to U.S. institutions

Soon after starting her graduate study in 2021, Li Lin created a favorites folder in her browser to save information about labs she found interesting and hoped to receive training at in the future, either through exchange programs or postdoctoral opportunities.

Three years later, while applying for the China Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarship, she looked at the folder again and discovered that “not a single one was available to her because they were all in the U.S.”

“My research area is personality and social psychology, which is most advanced in the U.S. When I bookmarked these labs, I paid no attention to the political context,” Li said.

Currently, Li has given up on the idea of conducting academic research in the U.S. in the near future.

But that’s not all. She sent over 30 emails to institutions in the U.K., Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Responses from institutions like Aarhus University in Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, and the Max Planck Institute in Germany indicated that they were no longer accepting students funded by the CSC.

One professor wrote in his rejection email, “maybe times [will] change at some point.”