Numbers of US-China exchange students ever rising

It is the third time that Danielle Rang has been to China. The 20-year-old from New York first came to China two years ago, through a college course she was taking for one month during the summer at Tianjin University of Science and Technology.

"I enjoyed my experience there and wished to return," she said, adding that, thanks to educational cooperation between China and the US, she went back to Tianjin the following year and is studying Chinese language at Peking University as an exchange student.

"I think the programs between China and the US have allowed me to return to China and study here, something I never thought I would be able to do," she said. "Without the cooperation between my university in the US and Peking University, I probably would not have returned to China, as I would not have known how to."

Rang is not the only one who benefited from the educational exchange and cooperation effort between China and the US.

According to the Ministry of Education, in 2013, there were 25,156 US students in China: 1,363 undergraduate students, 1,351 graduate students and 22,442 non-degree students. The number from the US ranked second, behind South Korea, among all the foreign students studying in China.

And that’s only part of the 68,000 US students who have come to China since November 2009, when US President Barack Obama announced his goal of sending 100,000 students to China.

The Ministry of Education attaches great importance to the "100,000 Strong" initiative, and 620 colleges and institutions in China that are able to accept overseas students are open to US students.

In 2010, a scholarship program for US students studying in China was set up under the Sino-US high-level consultation mechanism for cultural exchanges, which enables bilateral high-level consultation on education, science and technology, culture and sports.

Overseen by the Ministry of Education, the scholarship program offered assistance to more than 11,700 students during 2010 and 2013, above the original target of 10,000. And the ministry has decided to extend the scholarship program for four more years to sponsor an additional 10,000 US students.

The number of Chinese students heading to the US for study also is increasing.

The 2014 report on the trend of Chinese students studying abroad, which was released by China Education Online in mid-March, showed that the US remains the top destination for Chinese students. The number increased from 62,582 for the 2005-06 academic year to 235,597 in 2012-13.

Although cooperation on education between China and the US has been common in recent years, the education collaboration between the two countries started more than a century ago, when then-US president Theodore Roosevelt stressed the necessity of establishing contact with China on education, according to Mary Brown Bullock, a scholar of US-China relations.

Bullock is executive vice-chancellor of Duke Kunshan University, which is located in Kunshan, Jiangsu province and was established by Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, together with Wuhan University in Hubei province.

"Educational ties have been a remarkably successful and long-lasting component of the bilateral relationship for more than a century," Bullock said.

Bullock’s remarks were echoed by Vice-Premier Liu Yandong, who gave a lecture at the 100,000 Strong Foundation’s annual conference in Washington in November.

"More young US citizens studying under the initiative are seen on China’s college campuses, and their progress amazes us.

"Together with their Chinese counterparts, they form a fresh force dedicated to closer friendship between the two peoples," Liu said.

Zhang Yue in Beijing and Chen Weihua in Washington contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn