Foreigners in China worry about their future as Beijing, Washington clash

American student Sam Goldstein thought he had the perfect plan for this year. After securing a prestigious Fulbright scholarship from the US government to research excavated manuscripts from the Warring States Period (475-221BC) in China for a year, he flew to Shanghai in January.

After deciding where he wanted to live, he started looking at flats and even met up with his fellow academics at the city's Fudan University.

But two weeks after Goldstein arrived, the Chinese government went on high alert in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, while the US issued travel warnings, so he returned home to the US.

Five months on, work on his dissertation has halted and his scholarship has been suspended. He said he feared that the tensions between Beijing and Washington might stop him ever going back to China.

Goldstein is by no means a lone example. Expatriates in China and others with ties to the country have been getting increasingly rattled in recent months as the hostility between the US and China " over trade, geopolitics, technology and, most recently, the coronavirus " has steadily increased.

US President Donald Trump has announced visa restrictions for Chinese students and state media journalists, imposed controls on Chinese technology firms and threatened to revoke Hong Kong's special status after Beijing announced its plan to introduce a national security law for the city.

China, meanwhile, has revoked the visas of American journalists, despite its leaders vowing to continue welcoming foreigners and opening up the country's markets.

James Palmer, a British editor at US news magazine Foreign Policy " who spent more than 10 years living in China " said the situation was not looking good for foreigners in the country.

"I think it's going to be really bad on multiple levels," he said.

"The everyday frustrations around visas will sharply increase; you can expect much more paperwork, fewer loopholes."

He said he also expected anti-foreigner sentiment to rise, saying Chinese people might become more wary of outsiders.

James Palmer, a Briton who spent more than 10 years living in China, says the situation is not looking good for foreigners in the country. Photo: AFP alt=James Palmer, a Briton who spent more than 10 years living in China, says the situation is not looking good for foreigners in the country. Photo: AFP

Goldstein said he was not surprised by Washington's moves but feared how China might respond.

"It's probably going to escalate," he said. "If it affects anyone it will probably affect me. If Trump bans graduate students, then China could ban graduate students too."

The Ministry of Education in Beijing said late on Friday that it was against "politicising students studying abroad" and that it welcomed people of all countries to study in China.

Goldstein said that while his scholarship might be reinstated after the summer, he was unsure if he would be able to return to China by then and had therefore been looking at alternative places to study, including Taiwan and Singapore.

For those with businesses and families already established in China, the uncertainty is even worse.

The owner of a language consulting firm, who asked not to be named, said many of his friends were simply hoping to ride it out.

"They have houses, dogs, wives and kids, and the kids are at school," he said. "It's not like they can just put a few things in a suitcase, pack up and leave. They're quite invested."

The businessman, who is married to a Chinese woman, said he had thought about leaving China and had asked around for jobs, but hoped it would not come to that. The couple are trying for a family and have two dogs, a cat and a 10-year lease on their flat.

"I fear the political environment will deteriorate to such a degree that it will be either uncomfortable for me to live in China, I'll face hostility or I just won't get my visa, because of some sort of political measure," he said.

In May, Chris Buckley, a veteran Beijing correspondent for The New York Times, became the latest foreign journalist to be forced to leave China after his visa was not renewed.

Jeremy Goldkorn, the South African editor-in-chief of SupChina.com, said that while the US and China had clashed before " most notably in 1999 when the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, sparking anti-US sentiment at home " there no longer seemed to be a desire on either side for reconciliation.

"The two governments [in 1999] found ways to de-escalate tensions," he said. "This time, no one wants to de-escalate. I hope for the best, but fear the worst."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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