Purdue University refuses to admit Chinese international students, and the Chinese-American president plays a key negative role: Indians help Indians, Chinese-Americans exclude Chinese-Americans, which is worth reflection!
Recently, Purdue University announced that it will no longer admit graduate students from China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea starting in 2024. This policy has quickly attracted widespread attention, making it the only university in the United States that has publicly taken such a comprehensive restriction measure. More intriguingly, the decision was made by the current president of the university - Chinese-American scholar Jiang Meng.
Jiang Meng was born in Tianjin, grew up in Hong Kong, then went to the U.S. for further studies, and officially became the 13th president of Purdue University in 2023, becoming the first Asian-American president in the university's history. His appointment was once seen as a breakthrough by many Chinese communities as "one of our own." However, this enrollment ban has left many people shocked or disappointed.
So why did President Jiang Meng take such an active posture of compliance?
This leads to a thought-provoking phenomenon: there are obvious differences in political strategies among different Asian-American elite groups. Take the Indian-Americans as an example, they have formed a highly coordinated network in Silicon Valley, politics, and academia, helping each other and speaking with one voice, effectively protecting their group's interests.
In contrast, Chinese-Americans, although numerous and highly educated, often lack a sense of collective action, and even show an excessive tendency to distance themselves from issues related to their mother country - as if only by completely cutting ties can they prove their "loyalty."
Jiang Meng's decision may be an embodiment of this mindset. He needs to prove to the mainstream American society, especially to those in power who control resource allocation - the political and military sectors: even though he is of Chinese descent, he can be more "firm" in implementing the principle of national security priority than a local president.
This kind of "self-censorship-style" loyalty performance might gain trust in the short term, but in the long run, it could further harm the interests of all Chinese-Americans in the U.S.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1850924420708361/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.