中国留美研究生签证限制引发学界担忧

admin

President Trump’s confrontation with China is beginning to ripple through American academic and research institutions, as a crackdown on visas for certain Chinese citizens has left the higher education community wondering how it will adapt to the administration’s effort to stop intellectual property theft.

特朗普总统与中国的对峙已开始波及美国学术和研究机构，政府限制某些中国公民签证的做法，让高等教育界不知该如何适应政府阻止知识产权盗窃的行动。

Educators and academic groups fear that the additional scrutiny could hinder scientific innovation, alienate talented applicants or intensify aggressions toward Chinese scientists already in the country.

教育工作者和学术团体担心，更多的审查可能会阻碍科学创新，让有才华的申请者怯步，或加剧对已在美国的华裔科学家的打击。

Academics are already wrestling with the increased attention. At an aerospace conference in Georgia last month, Ella Atkins, a University of Michigan professor, recalled a colleague approaching her with a dilemma.

更多的关注已经让学者们疲于应对。上个月，在佐治亚州的一次航空航天会议上，密歇根大学(University of Michigan)教授埃拉.阿特金斯(Ella Atkins)回忆起一位同事就一个两难问题向她征求意见的事情。

The colleague, an assistant professor at another university, had recently led and submitted a research proposal for a federal grant. But he worried that because he was Chinese, the judges would be biased against his team.

那位同事是另一所大学的助理教授，最近带领一个研究团队向联邦政府提交了一份项目资助申请。但他担心评审者会对他的团队有偏见，因为他是华人。

“He said, ‘I need to figure out how to take myself off as the P.I., the principal investigator, if that’s going to compromise our project’s chances of being accepted,’” Ms. Atkins said, declining to name the academic for fear of jeopardizing his proposal. The professor, she added, was even considering withdrawing from the project completely to avoid holding back his co-researchers.

“他说，‘我需要想个办法不当项目的主要研究者，如果那会降低我们的项目获得资助的机会的话，’”阿特金斯说，由于担心损害他的项目申请，她拒绝透露该学者的姓名。她补充说，那位教授甚至考虑彻底退出项目，以避免妨碍他的研究合作者。

It is a sentiment that some, such as Representative Judy Chu, Democrat of California, believe underscores a tone of racism behind the policy change. The restrictions, she said, equate to targeting “an entire ethnic group of people for suspicion that they’re spies for China.”

一些人认为，这个政策变化显露的情绪突显了其背后的种族主义色彩。比如，加州民主党众议员赵美心(Judy Chu)说，这些限制等同于把目标指向“一整个族群的人，怀疑他们都是中国间谍”。

“I think we should take specific security threats seriously, but each of those threats should be identified by the threat, not by racial groups,” said Ms. Chu, the chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

“我认为，我们应该认真对待具体的安全威胁，但每个威胁的判定应该以威胁本身为依据，而不是以种族群体为依据，”赵美心说。她是国会亚太裔美国人党团(Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus)主席。

Since June 11, the State Department has been restricting visas for Chinese graduate students studying in sensitive research fields to one year, with the chance to reapply every year. The move rolls back an Obama-era policy that allowed Chinese citizens to secure five-year student visas.

自6月11日起，美国国务院已把在敏感研究领域学习的中国研究生的签证有效期限制为一年，这些学生每年有机会重新申请签证。此举推翻了奥巴马时代允许中国公民获得五年学生签证的政策。

Le Fang, a Ph.D. student from China studying computer science at the University at Buffalo, locked up a five-year F-1 visa in 2015. But the new policy could hurt his friends whose visas recently expired, he said. They may have to fly back to China to get new visas, and they risk denials partway through their academic career.

在布法罗大学(University at Buffalo)攻读计算机科学的中国博士生方乐（音）已在2015年拿到了为期五年的F1签证。但他说，新政策可能会让他的朋友们遭殃，他们的签证最近到期了。他们可能不得不飞回中国去申请新签证，在自己的学业未完成时面临被拒签的危险。