A Stunning Discovery by US Media: Fewer Chinese Students Are Coming to America, While Chinese-American Professors Are Leaving

A Stunning Discovery by US Media: Fewer Chinese Students Are Coming to America, While Chinese-American Professors Are Leaving 美媒的一個驚人發現：來美中國留學生少了，同一時間，美國華人教授走了……

2025年11月17日，美國《門戶開放報告》最新一期出來了。美國高校招生辦看完直接傻眼：中國在美本科生，現在只剩78,583人，幾年前可是15萬。

全美國際學生創了117萬的新高，印度人衝到36萬，把中國保持了15年的第一名給擠了。全世界學生還在往美國跑，偏偏中國孩子不去了。那些靠中國學費養了十幾年的二三線大學，宿舍空了，班都開不齊了。人為什麼去不了？簽證就是頭一道鐵門。

《第一刀 簽證卡殼》

2025年5月28日，美國國務院發聲明要嚴查中國留學生。國務卿魯比奧當天就在社交媒體上喊話：狠狠吊銷中國學生的簽證。

什麼叫敏感領域？沒說。整個理工科都可能算，誰也不知道自己哪天踩了線。緊接着簽證又收緊了，14歲以下80歲以上都得去面簽。

敏感專業的學生更慘，有效期壓到3個月，辦一次拖上半年。有孩子暑假回國探個親，就再也回不去了。課都開了，人還在國內乾等着。就問你急不急？

《第二刀 教授被抄》

學生不來了，講台上的華人教授也在撤。2025年3月出了件事，美國學術圈炸了鍋。

印第安納大學計算機系有個王曉峰教授，在學校幹了二十年。一天FBI突然搜了他家，校方接着就出手了：沒起訴、沒定罪，把王曉峰和他同樣在學校的妻子，直接解聘了。

校規規定的提前十天通知、校內聽證會全跳過了。校方就一句：去問FBI。

他妻子馬念莉說每天醒來都以為是一場噩夢，在這所大學付出了二十年青春，連個為什麼都沒等到。

這事傳開后全美華裔學者後背發涼。麻省理工教授陳剛2021年也被抓過，關了近一年才證明清白。他說想起那天被帶走的時候，氣得渾身發抖，就兩個字，噁心。

《第三刀 數據明牌》

不是一兩個人的感覺。普林斯頓大學教授謝宇做了個追蹤研究，覆蓋兩萬多家機構。

2010到2021年，每年離開美國的華裔科學家從900人漲到了2600多人，翻了兩番。這些人去哪了？2010年48%回中國大陸和香港，到2021年變成67%。

謝宇團隊還問卷了1304名有終身教職的華裔科學家：72%的人做研究感到不安全，86%的人說現在招頂級學生比五年前難太多了。這三個數字擺出來，意思就一個——環境不行了，人待不住了。

《第四刀 用腳投票》

2024年1月，力學界頂級專家高華健全職回了清華，七院院士，拿過國際固體力學最高獎。

年底美國醫學科學院院士王存玉離開加州大學洛杉磯分校，去北大當了院長，說回母校是榮幸也是責任。

2025年初，核物理學家劉暢離開普林斯頓去了北大物理學院。數學家林華新在美國待了近40年回了上海。計算機科學家陳婧離開美國去了清華。

媒體盤了一下，2024年以來至少17名頂尖科學家從海外回國，75%以上是從美國回來的。

《自然》雜誌2025年3月做了個調查，1600多名美國科研人員里，超過1200人在考慮離開，比例高達75%，原因就是政府砍經費、大把人被裁。

哈佛費正清中心前主任墨菲早警告過，說美國正在失去整整一代了解中國的人。數學家丘成桐說得更直接：這些科學家除了離開別無選擇。

美國一百年靠全世界的聰明腦袋撐起來的，現在簽證掐死了，華人查緊了，錢也砍了，那些人憑什麼還留着？數據已經把趨勢寫得明明白白，接下來還會發生什麼，時間會給答案。

November 17, 2025 — The latest edition of the U.S. Open Doors Report was released. Admissions offices at American universities were stunned: there are now only 78,583 Chinese undergraduates in the U.S., down from 150,000 just a few years ago.

The total number of international students in the U.S. hit a new high of 1.17 million, with Indian students surging to 360,000 and displacing China from the top spot it had held for 15 years. Students from all over the world are still flocking to America — but Chinese students are staying away. For second- and third-tier universities that have relied on Chinese tuition for over a decade, dormitories are empty and classes can’t even be filled. Why can’t they come? Visas are the first iron gate.

Blow 1: Visa Hangups

On May 28, 2025, the U.S. State Department issued a statement vowing to scrutinize Chinese students. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to social media the same day, declaring: “Vigorously revoke Chinese students’ visas.”

What counts as a “sensitive field”? No one knows. The entire STEM spectrum could be included, and no one knows when they might cross the line. Soon after, visa rules tightened further — even applicants under 14 and over 80 were required to appear for in-person interviews.

Students in sensitive majors fared even worse: their visa validity was slashed to three months, and each application dragged on for six months. Some students who went home to China for summer vacation never made it back. Classes had already started, but they were still stuck waiting in China. Can you feel the urgency?

Blow 2: Professors Raided

Students aren’t coming, and Chinese professors on the podium are also leaving. In March 2025, something happened that sent shockwaves through U.S. academia.

Professor Wang Xiaofeng, a computer science faculty member at Indiana University who had worked there for two decades, had his home suddenly raided by the FBI. The university then moved swiftly: without charges or a conviction, they terminated both Wang and his wife, who also worked at the school.

The university skipped the required ten-day notice and on-campus hearing, offering only one explanation: “Ask the FBI.”

His wife, Ma Nianli, said she wakes up every day hoping it’s a nightmare — having given twenty years of her youth to the university, without even a reason why.

Word spread, and Chinese-American scholars across the country felt a chill down their spines. MIT professor Chen Gang, who was arrested in 2021 and spent nearly a year in detention before being exonerated, said he still trembles with anger when recalling the day he was taken away. His verdict: two words — disgusting.

Blow 3: Data Tells the Story

It’s not just a handful of people’s feelings. Princeton professor Xie Yu conducted a longitudinal study covering more than 20,000 institutions.

From 2010 to 2021, the number of Chinese-American scientists leaving the U.S. each year grew from 900 to over 2,600 — quadrupling. Where did they go? In 2010, 48% returned to mainland China and Hong Kong; by 2021, that figure had risen to 67%.

Xie’s team also surveyed 1,304 tenured Chinese-American scientists: 72% felt unsafe conducting research in the U.S., and 86% said it is now much harder to recruit top-tier students than five years ago. Put these three numbers together, and the message is clear — the environment is no longer viable, and people are no longer staying.

Blow 4: Voting with Their Feet

In January 2024, Gao Huajian, a top expert in mechanics and a seven-academy academician who had won the highest international award in solid mechanics, returned to Tsinghua University full-time.

At the end of the year, Wang Cunyu, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, left UCLA to become dean at Peking University, calling his return to his alma mater “both an honor and a responsibility.”

In early 2025, nuclear physicist Liu Chang left Princeton for Peking University’s School of Physics. Mathematician Lin Huaxin, who had spent nearly 40 years in the U.S., returned to Shanghai. Computer scientist Chen Jing left the U.S. for Tsinghua.

The media tallied it up: since 2024, at least 17 top scientists have returned from overseas, over 75% of them from the U.S.

In March 2025, Nature conducted a survey of more than 1,600 U.S. researchers — over 1,200 were considering leaving, a staggering 75%, citing government funding cuts and mass layoffs.

Ezra Vogel, former director of Harvard’s Fairbank Center, had warned early on that America was losing an entire generation of people who understand China. Mathematician Shing-Tung Yau put it more bluntly: “These scientists have no choice but to leave.”

For a century, America has been sustained by brilliant minds from around the world. Now visas are choked off, Chinese scholars are being closely scrutinized, and funding is slashed — why would they stay? The data already spells out the trend in black and white. What happens next? Time will tell.