London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

US-China relations: Washington confirms suspension of Fulbright programme for Hong Kong, mainland

Would-be participants told after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order this month in retaliation for Beijing’s imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong. Programme, set up in 1946, allows American and foreign academics to teach, research and study in each other’s countries
The United States has confirmed the suspension of its Fulbright programme in mainland China and Hong Kong, after President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the fellowship earlier this month in response to Beijing’s introduction of a national security law in the former British colony.

In an email sent to US scholars preparing to take part in the programme, the US state department said the 2020-21 exchange “will not operate”, though participants would be allowed to apply to take part in different countries.

The Fulbright programme was established by the US in 1946 and allows American and foreign academics to teach, research and study in each other’s countries. The first agreement was signed with China, but it now covers more than 160 countries.

Trump announced the termination of the exchanges in an executive order on July 14. It was part of a series of actions to remove the preferential treatment afforded Hong Kong.

The confirmation comes as ties between China and the United States continue to sour over a broad range of issues, including trade, technology, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the South China Sea. The rising tensions also saw the Peace Corps end its China programme, which sent American volunteers to teach English in Chinese universities, in January.

Hundreds of Fulbright participants, past and present, criticised the suspension, saying it was counterproductive at a time of heightened US-China tensions and would hurt mutual understanding between the countries. More than 1,500 people signed a petition, organised by Fulbright members and alumni, arguing it was “because of the state of US-China relations today that Fulbright’s work is more needed, not less”.

Rachel Wong, a board member of Fulbright Lotus, an affinity group supporting Asian and Asian-American members of the programme, said the move was a “huge blow” to US, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students and scholars alike.

“Fulbright’s entire mission revolves around cultural diplomacy and intercultural exchange, and this executive order goes against that,” said Wong, who received a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan this year.

“This will have consequences in our societies as well: we don’t get to reap the benefits of breakthrough collaborative research.”

Canaan Morse, a doctoral student at Harvard University and 2020 Fulbright awardee who planned to research Chinese traditional storytelling in Beijing, said the suspension of the programme left him “frustrated, infuriated and deeply, deeply saddened”.

He said he had already lined up interviews with artists in Beijing, but would now have to submit a new proposal to conduct his research on the ethnography of “pingshu” performance in Taiwan instead.

“I have no truly satisfactory alternatives because those of us who study folk performance must go to the locus of performance – we can’t just simply substitute one thing for another,” he said.

“I can think of nothing more counterproductive to the improvement of the US-China relationship than the cancellation of this programme.

“We live in a world in which everyone is yelling, and no one is being persuaded … But what does help is when a cultural outsider can say, I see what you have and I love it too. That’s what brings people together, and that’s how minds are changed.”

About 140 China scholars signed a separate open letter against the move, after the board for the Michigan-based non-profit organisation Association for Asian Studies released a statement on July 16 that called the termination “extremely short-sighted” with “long-lasting implications for US foreign affairs.”

James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University in Washington who signed the letter, said he was awarded a Fulbright grant in 1989, which later partially funded foundational research for his career he conducted in Beijing and through trips to Xinjiang.

Millward, whose research helped expose the mass internment camps Beijing uses to imprison Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, said the cancellation of the exchanges would hurt the US more than China, and cut off an important channel between American and Hong Kong scholars.

“I don’t know if this was simply an ignorant, money-saving measure on the part of the administration, or whether this was deliberately meant as part of a decoupling strategy, but it really is a case of the administration shooting itself in the foot,” he said.

“It’s literally blinding us to China at a time when we need to know and understand China more.

“Sending somebody to teach in Hong Kong, or welcoming a scholar from Hong Kong – it has nothing at all to do with what the Chinese Communist Party’s trying to do, in fact it’s enabling it because it is cutting Hong Kong off in significant ways from the academic world in the United States.”

Yang Wang, an assistant professor of art history at the University of Colorado Denver, said the programme had shaped the careers of many scholars, diplomats, journalists and business professionals, including her own after Fulbright funded her art history research in 2011 in Xian.

Wang, who sits on the campus committee for her university’s Fulbright student programmes, said the China and Hong Kong programmes currently supported 50 to 60 researchers.

“It would be a major loss to our national base of expertise on Greater China. It not only sends Americans abroad but also brings to the US many international students and professionals, who through Fulbright gain a deeper understanding of American culture that they, in turn, share with their networks back in their home countries,” she said.

“The programme has been a successful component of American diplomacy, a relatively economical one at that, and should be prioritised rather than dismantled.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×