Opinion | Why Donald Trump’s order to end China Fulbright exchange is dangerous

Name: Trump signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, ends city’s preferential trade status over national security law
Uploaded: 2020-07-29T21:10:09.000Z
Duration: 2 min 9 s
Description: Trump signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, ends city’s preferential trade status over national security law

The Fulbright exchange programme was born out of hopes for peace in the aftermath of the second world war, but also reflected realism about the need to avoid another cataclysm

Stopping the flow of Fulbrighters between China and the US undermines decades of effort to build understanding and cooperation, and avoid uninformed miscalculations

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US President Donald Trump heads a meeting in the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 7. Trump’s “Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalisation” on July 14 set in motion the termination of the Fulbright exchange programme with Hong Kong and the rest of China. Photo: AFP

James V. WertschandMark S. Wrighton

Published: 5:10am, 30 Jul 2020Updated: 5:36am, 30 Jul 2020

On July 14, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to cancel the Fulbright exchange programme with China and Hong Kong. This decision appears to stem from the Trump administration’s desire to appear tough on China in the midst of a presidential campaign. Whatever the motivation, the order causes damage to a flagship programme that underpins America’s soft power in the world.

The Fulbright Programme was created in the wake of the second world war, when president Harry Truman signed a bill introduced into Congress by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas.

The action that Trump has taken is particularly ironic, given that in 1945 Fulbright cited the Boxer indemnity scholarships as an illustration of how valuable it could be to offer support for students to study in the US. Indeed, the first Fulbright agreement with any nation was signed in Nanking on November 10, 1947.

The general aim of the Fulbright Programme is to strengthen ties with citizens and governments of other countries through exchanges of students, young professionals and teachers.

The programme has expanded to over 140 countries and awards about 8,000 grants annually in all fields of study. Roughly half of these grants go to US citizens who visit other countries and the other half to citizens of other countries who come to the US.

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Trump signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, ends city’s preferential trade status over national security law

Today, there are more than 380,000 Fulbrighters from over 150 countries who have participated in the programme, and its list of distinguished alumni includes 37 current or former heads of state, 60 Nobel Prize winners, 75 MacArthur “genius grant” awardees, and 88 Pulitzer Prize winners.

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