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Trump is Threatening International Educators Like Me
Teaching internationally is now threatened by the USA’s diplomacy.
The routine is ingrained at this point.
I wake up to see a barrage of Wechat notifications — messages from my friends and coworkers. I blearily check my groupchats. What did he do this time? I wonder. Trade war? Banning students? Removing embassies?
I work abroad. Trump’s actions make it difficult.
I’m a US citizen working for a Beijing-based educational consulting company, specializing in writing tutoring and applications to US colleges. Due to travel restrictions, I’m based in Iceland now, working remotely with my Chinese students.
Virtual work has its difficulties. I never thought international diplomacy would be one of them.
In July, ICE attempted to deport international students from campus — a terrifying move that threatens millions of individuals, many of them former students or classmates of mine.
In August, he is threatening to ban Wechat, Tiktok, and Tencent through an executive order.
The wording of this order is exceptionally vague. It prohibits, “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any…
