A surprise? Not much less: there has long been a steady upward trend in the number of Indian students who were going to study at university. And since it reached the summit in 2020, the number of its Chinese members had begun to decline: One hundred thousand less than in the 19/20 course during the 23/24 course.

However, before going any further, these figures deserve a little thought. On the one hand, for the quantitative amount. Over half a million students come together between two gigantic countries because their economic and talented contribution to the U.S. university system is not a couch of goats. And because, broadening the point of view, the predominance of the countries of East Asia, in general, and, more specifically, in proportion to their population, also expresses something.

Qualitatively, on the other hand, it would be sufficiently clear that, even if only by the accumulation of direct individual knowledge, the societies of those Asian countries should have a fairly broad and adjusted knowledge of the United States. On the contrary, the number of Americans who are going to study there, who have never been large, is now at ridiculous levels, especially in the case of China.

The decline in Chinese students attending American universities is, of course, related to the persecutions and attacks suffered in the United States by people in Asian form in general and by the Chinese in particular. And it seems that, instead of correcting that trend, it will be accentuated by Trump’s second term, which is about to begin. In addition, they don't seem to care much about the losses -- except the universities that highly appreciate the contributions of these students, both inexpensive and talented. The members of Europe are immediately the beneficiaries of this nonsense, as you see.

But maybe there's a bigger victor who's not so obvious. Chinese regime. Quite prior to him (s. XIX). Despite the fact that in recent years the Chinese leadership has launched a genuine state operation abroad, at leading universities and research centres, to “bring home the Chinese talent” it is working on. With them, of course, to rise to the highest level of their universities and labs.

And by drip, this operation is succeeding. The students will come next.

Above all, if someone decides that it is appropriate to impose tariffs on talent.