I would not agree with this. I went to an elite business school and my Chinese classmates all felt there was far more opportunity for them in China with an American education.

They’re not stupid, they look at China and see an economy growing at 6-9% a year while the US is stuck at 1-2% and they know where the growth is for the medium-term. They also see a mature American economy that can be tough to crack even for native white citizens, so its not hard to see how their chances of long-term success are much higher in China than in the US.

My experience matches the parent's. Of a good 70 classmates the only two who went back had trouble finding work here. I suspect your business school experience might differ from an engineering department. A substantial personality difference wouldn't surprise me.

Business school and liberal arts kids will mostly go back to China, STEM is very different.

My Chinese STEP colleagues have or plan to go back. Too many cultural and political impediments to progress here now.

Is that new? Because the trend has been very stabke for the past 10 years: fuerdai kids (with rich parents) who come to america to study major in liberal arts and business but will almost always go back because that is where their connections are. These are relatively new foreign students in the USA and constitute much of the recent boom.

The more tradition Chinese students who have been coming here since the 1980s (and don’t have very rich parents) mostly pick STEM majors. On graduating, they would rather work for Google in Mountain View than Tencent in Shenzhen.

More like US 4% and China 7%.

They are stupid, if they didn't know about China's fake gdp for the past several years.

"U.S. GDP could top 4% in 2nd quarter, economists say"

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-gdp-could-top-4-in-2nd-...

"Baotou in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region revised its estimated fiscal revenue in 2017 lower by nearly 50% in an annual work report"

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-data/anothe...

"China fake data mask economic rebound"

https://www.ft.com/content/a9889330-f51c-11e7-88f7-5465a6ce1...

Nobody can predict anything today, with president temper tantrum throwing weekly wrenches into the global economy. But over the last decade they would have been right; and keep in mind that even in China, most economic gains have been captured by the elite — which anyone educated in a top American university would be a part of almost by definition.

Also weighing heavily on people are family and cultural conflict issues. But anecdotally I can say that the majority of Chinese students don’t want to stay in the US for a variety of reasons; and that many feel their prospects are at least as good in China as the US.

>Well the vast majority of these kids would prefer to stay in the US.

I'm afraid you're making assumptions here.

America is not where opportunity is these days, especially in the hardware manufacturing sector.

>America is not where opportunity is these days

Yes, but the living standards in the United States are far higher. Sure you may never become a billionaire here like you can in China, but you can breathe the air and the traffic isn't that bad. The schools are better, the houses are bigger. China may get there, but I know where I'd rather be over the next 20-30 years. And they can always move back.

I'd be wary of thinking that it'll take that long. Live in Shenzhen and it is crazy the amount of progress here every year. Public transportation is way better than most American cities and housing is more expensive than most American cities. Apartments here regularly go for a couple million USD, the ads are plastered on the windows of every real estate agency on every street corner. The air here is quite breathable too, and from what I hear, other cities are getting better as well.

Yeah, I think US living standards are higher for now. But I can totally see China seeing parity in less than 20 years. For one thing, they have made large strides in infrastructure investment, and for another thing, they've been realizing and acting on their need to clean up their environmental act over the last few years.

By choosing to live in China, you take on the opportunity cost of a shortened lifespan, likely a decade or so give or take. As long as you can accept that, then China is perfectly fine place to live.

Chinese cities will open about 15 subway networks in the next 5 years. Let that sink in :)

Not that far, and shrinking fast, depends on who and where you are in China, just like the US. Trump is fixing the air quality issue[1]. China has excellent high speed trains and very innovative and modern shopping malls and housing estates. Google around. Chinese primary and secondary schools are way better than American high schools. Chinese attend international universities to gain experience and network opportunities. They are not here to because here is better.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump...

> Chinese primary and secondary schools are way better than American high schools. Chinese attend international universities to gain experience and network opportunities. They are not here to because here is better.

You heard of the (infamous) Gaokao? It's gruelling, and necessitates nothing but continuous study day in and day out to get into a decent Chinese university.

If they could, a lot of Chinese would prefer to study in the US (or any other western country for that matter).

>The schools are better

At the undergrad and graduate level, perhaps, and as another poster commented, probably not for very long.

But for the school years before undergrad, I'm sorry to say, America is in a very bad way.

I don't know how it compares to China, but American public primary and secondary school is definitely not where I'd have my children receive an education

A lot of them would love to stay, trading better life/career prospect with the inconveniences of living in a foreign country which only partially accepts them.

That's the old trade-off, and how America got the worlds' talent. But as lives in home countries get better, US would have to do more to make those immigrants feel like home. Or that trade-off would slowly stop making sense, and more people will go back to their home countries. This is not just happening with the Chinese.

That doesn't seem to be the current administration's goal. H-1B Visa, America's secret weapon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0Y9j_CGgM

"Well the vast majority of these kids would prefer to stay in the US."

For now.