CHINESE PARENTS, most of whom have only one child, are sending their children to American high schools in the hope that they will be admitted to top universities here. Brook Larmer of The New York Times reports:

In 2005, only 641 Chinese students were enrolled in American high schools. By 2014, that student population approached 40,000 — a 60-fold increase in a single decade — and it now accounts for nearly half of all international high-school students in the United States. “Parents realize that they have to start earlier if they want their children to get into a top U.S. university,” says Nini Suet, founder of Shang Learning, a boutique consultancy with headquarters in Beijing that charges $25,000 to $40,000 to help Chinese kids prepare for and apply to American boarding schools. “Families are looking for any edge they can get.”

As a new administration vowing “America First” settles into the White House, there is uncertainty about how long this phenomenon can last. It already faces headwinds within China. A slowing economy has cut into family savings, and a depreciating currency makes American educations more expensive. There are also fewer Chinese students to go around: The population of 18-to-23-year-olds has dropped by nearly a quarter in the last decade.

But the exodus of Chinese students continues for now, driven not just by a push from China but also by a pull from the United States. For each rich Chinese kid who enters an American school — whether public or private, college or high school — the multiplier effect means that entire communities can be buoyed by the buying power of the world’s second-largest economy.

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