Successful for All the Wrong Reasons?

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/china/2011-04/25/content_12385397.htm

China has announced that it wants to be the most popular Asian destination for foreign students, and it intends to reach this goal by drastically increasing available scholarship money. The plan seems to be working, but it is possible that there are other reasons for an increased interest in China. Chinese departments in schools across the United States started expanding their programs and gaining a wider base of interest long before China expressed a desire to draw more attention to themselves among college students. So although the new scholarships present more study abroad opportunities, the interest seemed to develop domestically and prior to these new opportunities.

Personally, I am drawn to Chinese studies by the miraculous rise and persistence of the Communist Party. My interest in Asian cultures and languages began when I was a child growing up in Singapore, but my more recent interest in China specifically stems from my interest in the Maoist Era and the detrimental legacy left behind. There are countless, seemingly unmanageable issues, that would have by now consumed the country if it was not for the rampant materialism, and I assume there are those who study China with the naïve hope that they can make a difference before the fate of the Chinese is decided by any number of factors. Unfortunately, I am one of them. There are innumerable crises that are only building in magnitude and environmental degradation, mounting inequality, and oppression are only three highlights. So perhaps China is succeeding in its goal to attract more foreign students, but is there also a possibility that the desperate situation in China is the pull factor and the scholarships only provide more access?