Yup--and (of course) announced right after many students have just left the US.

Though I've been surprised by Rubio on other things (Ukraine), this one isn't a surprise--he's a longtime China hawk & FL is much more extreme than the rest of the country on this stuff. PRC nationals can't buy real estate in much of FL, public universities can't recruit Chinese grad students, etc.

Ha! So good.

Our report offers recommendations for a way forward. At a time when the national US-China relationship is fraught, strategic city-level engagement--when cities are educated about possible risks and have resources to assist in addressing them--should not be abandoned entirely. (5/5)

However, US city leaders are far more attuned to these risks than they were a decade ago. Total disengagement also comes at a cost:

❌Economic & trade opportunities lost
❌Reduced academic & cultural exchange
❌Weakened climate collaboration
❌ Xenophobia toward AAPI communities (4/5)

There can be real risks to US cities from poorly managed relationships with Chinese party-state actors, who may try to use relationships to interfere in local government and harm local communities in service of the CCP’s economic, geopolitical, and repressive agendas. (3/5)

We find that city-level interaction with China has declined dramatically since 2019, as subnational interactions with China have come under intense scrutiny amid anti-China sentiment and fears of malign foreign influence. (2/5)

And the reverse is also true--big decline in US students studying Chinese.

As a result, I expect to see some resumption of educational exchanges and study abroad programs, but nowhere near a return to pre-COVID levels of exchange.

And, as @sophiedrich.bsky.social notes, the security concerns about travel to China haven't magically disappeared with this change in status--there are still very real risks that might make universities think twice about sending students there.

Some states (e.g. Texas and Florida) now have laws or executive orders banning travel to China by public employees or establishing partnerships with Chinese educational institutions. gov.texas.gov/news/post/go...

However, at this point educational exchanges with China have been severely disrupted for more than four years (since COVID). Universities have cancelled exchange programs with Chinese universities and created new ones with universities in Taiwan. news.fiu.edu/2024/fiu-lau...

Public universities have historically been a key site of subnational engagement w/China, and in @jarosky.bsky.social and my interviews with university administrators the level 3 warning has often come up as a key barrier to resuming US-China educational exchanges.

The level 3 warning made study abroad in China difficult or impossible for many US students. Universities' insurance wouldn't cover students in countries w/a level 3 warning, or university policies prohibited travel to countries with level 3 warnings (though in some cases this could be appealed).