Recently, Guangming Daily reported on the significance of a top international journal of economics accepting the paper by Professor Yu Miaojie, who is a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the 14th Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress, a deputy secretary of the CPC Committee, and President of Liaoning University. The original text and link are reproduced as follows:

Guangming Daily: Professor Yu Miaojie’s Paper Being Accepted by a Top International Journal of Economics Marks a New Significant Landmark Achievement for LNU’s “Double-First Class” Construction

Recently, the paper “Trade Liberalization and Chinese Students in US Higher Education”, co-authored by Professor Yu Miaojie, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee and President of Liaoning University, was officially accepted by The Review of Economics and Statistics, an internationally recognized top journal in economics and statistics. The study is regarded as one of the highest-level papers in economics accepted by a top international journal since the establishment of Liaoning University.

The Review of Economics and Statistics is not only recognized by the Ministry of Education as one of the top international journals in economics but is also acknowledged as one of the top seven internationally recognized journals in the field. Sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University and having a historical lifespan of over 100 years, it is one of the two longest running journals in the world. The journal’s mission is to publish experiential and theoretical research of vital importance in order to increase a wider interest in economics. Review of Economics and Statistics only accepts about 60 papers from around the world annually. Thus, in the past few years the journal has only accepted a handful of papers from Mainland China.

The study was co-written by Professor Yu Miaojie from Liaoning University, Gaurav Khanna from University of California, San Diego, Ariel Weinberger from George Washington University, Kevin Shih from Queen’s College, City University of New York, and Associate Professor Xu Mingzhi from the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University. The paper revealed, for the first time, a little-known phenomenon related to China’s integration into globalization: the rise of service trade.

Predicated on China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, the study found that the growth of national wealth, especially that of increased income in real estate and related businesses brought about by trade liberalization, has enabled more Chinese families to bear the high cost of studying abroad at higher education institutions in the United States. With an increase in the number of Chinese students of suitable age visiting the United States to pursue higher education, the United States’ trade deficit in goods with China has partially flown back to the U.S. in the form of a trade surplus in educational services, creating huge economic benefits for American higher education. The tuition income generated by international students has helped higher education institutions in America effectively control the increase in tuition fees, thereby providing more high-quality educational resources and more educational opportunities for local American students. However, since the trade dispute initiated by the Trump administration in 2017, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States has for the first time stagnated. This will greatly reduce the financial budgets of American universities and other research institutions, with public universities bearing the brunt of the conflict. The study estimates how trade frictions between China and the United States may result in a loss of approximately $1.1 billion of tuition fees annually for higher education institutions in the United States. The study is the first to prove that China’s trade expansion is a key factor for increasing the number of Chinese students studying in the United States, with these research results attracting widespread international attention.