I've been getting a lot of crushing anxiety as of late over mass surveillance in the US. Just really wacky paranoia all around (probably due to the way my parents raised me). I'm doing an electrical engineering degree right now and have no debt on account of landing a full-tuition scholarship out of highschool. I have enough saved up that next year when I start my master's degree I will still be pretty free of debt. Overall I am pretty privileged; I want to get more involved in organizing and other leftist actions because I feel culpable in the current system. My anxiety keeps me from taking any real action though because I feel like joining any organization would put my family on a list to be put in Palantir-sponsored Abu Ghraib. I've been considering going to therapy and trying to get medicated—although my parents won't like it (I still live with them)—in order to try and organize as best I can without getting kicked out (I'm 19 lol idk if I can survive on my own).
I realized that my research interests/degree concentrations (quantum computing, chip technology, and robotics) align really heavily with what China considers national priorities. On a whim (and because I like learning new languages) started studying Mandarin and fell in love with it. I also know that Chinese colleges are relatively friendly to foreign applications and was considering doing a PhD over there when all is said and done here. I know it's significantly, significantly easier said than done and I don't expect it to be a walk in the park at all. I was just wondering if anyone here could shed some light on my idea, I guess? It would also help to be from a more 'pro-China' perspective, as I asked a similar question on feddit and they basically hit me with an 'Oh the horrors..." about China and how it was actually terrible and impossible for me to emigrate over there.
Again I know it won't be easy at all, and I know there's not exactly a shortage of engineers in China, but I would really appreciate any input on this past the token shitlib "actually China is literally evil 1984 jojorwell" stuff. Thanks in advance.
lol
Reddit downright told me K-visas are actually not possible to get or some form of lie I guess? The consensus (really was more of an implication) was something about the visas being indefinitely frozen because the Chinese job market was so bad that Chinese graduates were upset foreigners were taking their jobs or something to that effect.
As for ^this I was told that it's, once again, very difficult to get transferred and there's minimal foreigners in Chinese engineering business. They said it was more common before 2020. I imagine not absolutely EVERYTHING they said were lies, but I suppose it's definitely possible that Reddit has a bit of an exaggerated perspective on anything Chinese. If you don't mind, could you let me know how recently they did it? Thank you very much!
Ah that was a little missleading, I just put K-visa there because it has been making quite the buzz and people have said it is great, I know one person who got one and she is doing a postdoc. I have only heard of academics getting it after already having secured an offer. Those who just went there to study languages went with "ordinary" visa whichever that is, and they did so pre-covid when I think it was a bit easier.
Yea it is probably very industry dependent sadly, the two people I know who went this route worked in marketing/sales and studied Mandarin like crazy -- once they got proficient enough they were very valuable working with import/export sales with foreign and Chinese companies in their niche fields (this was during right at the end of Covid and they have lived there since). I think it's much harder for engineering graduates at the moment sadly, it might change in the coming years but I wouldn't count on it.
Regardless of what the future might hold, I would really try and get there some way -- whether by exchange semester or just on vacation -- to get a feeling for the country.
I’m highly considering going to study mandarin in China next year, for at least a year. I’m a software engineer and heard it’s really hard to find a job doing that in China because of fierce competition, but I’m going to see. Maybe I’ll continue my studies there to make myself more competitive.