| A non-randomized anonymous online IRB-approved survey of 335 students, comprising 10% of the Chinese international population of the Indiana University system recorded the degree to which Chinese students reported confidence in and support for Chinese and US institutions of politics and governance. Responses suggest that Chinese students in the Indiana University stystem are a richly heterogeneous population, with gender, degree status, and socio-economic status serving as key variables in describing differences witnessed in political values. Previous studies of Chinese students in the US have focused primarily on nationalism finding that Chinese students become more nationalistic the longer they are in the US. However, these studies do not usefully subdivide the term "Chinese student" into discrete elements to identify political values variation among different groups of students. They also do not attempt a rigorous explanation for the mechanisms by which political values change may occur. Given the potential weaknesses of earlier research, this study seeks to explore in greater depth variation across the Chinese student population targeting the role that gender, student degree status, and socio-economic status play in reported measures of confidence in and support for institutions of governance and politics. Although this is not a longitudinal study, and is instead a cross-sectional study with data from only a single point in time about any specific individual,, the data from this study suggest that political values of undergraduates may change with time spent in the US. Namely, support for US institutions among Chinese undergraduates is progressively lower for students who have been in the US for longer periods of time. Additionally, this study suggests that Chinese students in the US do not hold a zero-sum conception of politics where support for China is inversely correlated with support for the US. Rather, support for and confidence in institutions of Chinese politics and governance are positively correlated with support for and confidence in institutions of the US-- that is, a student who gives high ratings of support for or confidence in an institution of China is also likely to give high ratings of support for or confidence in an institution of the United States. Similarly, lower support for China also predicts lower support for the US. |
