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Phoebe Zhang

International students once saw US colleges as a gateway to a world-class education and career head start but shifting United States immigration policies, tightening visa conditions and high-profile ICE raids are causing them to reconsider. In the first in our series, Phoebe Zhang looks at how Chinese students are preparing for life – and safety – in America. The second instalment in our series is here.
Beijing student Lulu Lu was just preparing for bed when she was startled by loud banging at her door.
When she opened the door, a man pushed his way inside, shone a flashlight in her face and shouted: “Get down. Give me your phone.”
Lu froze.
Moments later, she came to her senses and did as she was told, burying her face in the mattress and raising her hands above her head.
The intruder blindfolded Lu, tied her hands and finally made her record a phone message for her parents – begging them to pay a ransom.
Except the scenario was not real.
It was just an instructor at a private summer camp, training Lu how to handle a kidnapping in case it happened for real when she started school in the US in two months.
After the drill was over, the coaches sat down with Lu to review what she did right.
Key points they reminded her of included getting down on the floor, figuring out what the kidnappers wanted and not aggravating them.
“I hope I never have to use any of this, but I definitely feel more alert after learning it,” said Lu, who starts college in Washington state in September.
These courses are the latest way Chinese students are getting ready for the perceived risks of studying in the United States, driven in part by the Donald Trump administration’s increasingly hostile policies towards international students and the fluctuating Sino-US relationship.


Less than 10 days ago, the US Department of Homeland Security announced student and cultural exchange visas would be limited to a maximum of four years, which China has called “discriminatory”.
Lu went to an exclusive international high school in Beijing, where instead of preparing for the gruelling national college-entrance exam, students mostly chose to study abroad or in Hong Kong.
She eventually decided to head to the US because it offered a freer educational environment, as she could pick any major she wanted and explore extracurricular activities, she said.
But when her mother found out about summer camps that prepared students for studying in the US, she did not hesitate to sign up her enthusiastic daughter.
One camp Lu attended in Fujian province offered a variety of panellists to talk about their past experiences, while a camp in Beijing said it could offer hands-on preparation for “hidden dangers”.
A social media advertisement for the Beijing camp – which provided the kidnapping drill – said the security training was based on risk evaluation reports from 110 US campuses.
The course puts students in scenarios simulating hate crimes, phone and internet scams, bullying, and the latest addition – how to cope with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] raids.


“This training simulates ICE enforcement tactics and procedures, preparing participants to respond calmly and effectively to sudden raids in various everyday settings – including their homes, schools and public spaces,” the post read.
While the Trump administration did change rules that previously put schools and colleges out of bounds for immigration enforcement, other scenarios offered by the camps seem to have less basis in actual risks. For instance, there is no evidence that kidnapping by strangers has grown more common in the US and the crime is thought to remain rare.
The founder of the Beijing camp declined an interview request from the South China Morning Post.
Many families like Lu’s are still going ahead with their plans to send their children to study in the US, but they are less certain about the future they once hoped for.
A mother living in southern China’s Guangdong province, who wished to remain anonymous, said her family had invested too much in their son’s education to change course now.
The family had always planned to send their child to the US for higher education. In light of the worsening atmosphere, they had toned down their expectations – and received fewer university offers than expected – but still decided to go ahead.
“But if it’s hard to stay in the US after graduation, maybe we’ll decide to work in Hong Kong then,” the mother said.
This trend has been observed by Yingyi Ma, a professor at Syracuse University and author of Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese Undergraduates Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education. She believes policy shifts under Trump have affected these families’ long-term confidence. They are now more concerned with whether the visa policy is stable and the availability of post-graduation opportunities.
“We have seen some signals, such as a stronger willingness among some Chinese students to return to China, and an overall decline in the number of Chinese students going to the US,” she said.


According to the Open Doors Report, an annual US-based survey on international students and scholars published by the Institute of International Education, the number of Chinese students in the US has been dropping for five consecutive years, to just below 266,000 in 2025.
Reports by Chinese private educational services provider New Oriental found that the United Kingdom replaced the US as the most desired destination for studying abroad in 2019.
But some students say that the quality of academic programmes still comes first. Steve Liu, a master’s student in finance, said the US had a considerable edge in his field.
He will be a visiting scholar in the coming semester and hopes to apply for a doctorate.
He said that US films gave him the impression that the country was “open and tolerant” and he wanted to experience protests or a strike if possible.
As for the potential risks others worry about – visa issues, ICE raids or mass shootings – Liu said he would deal with these problems as they happened.
Regardless, he hopes he might be able to avoid them.
“I’ll be in California, there are more Democrats there,” he said.
Additional reporting by Caroline Lin


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Politics

As Trump’s toughening rules spark anxiety, Chinese parents pay for camps teaching how to survive being seized by gunmen or ‘hidden dangers’


As Trump’s toughening rules spark anxiety, Chinese parents pay for camps teaching how to survive being seized by gunmen or ‘hidden dangers’.


Fake ICE raids and kidnapping drills: how Chinese teens prepare for US college

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}As Trump’s toughening rules spark anxiety, Chinese parents pay for camps teaching how to survive being seized by gunmen or ‘hidden dangers’

As Trump’s toughening rules spark anxiety, Chinese parents pay for camps teaching how to survive being seized by gunmen or ‘hidden dangers’