Abysmal global literacy of US college students

The results are particularly worrisome since such a low global literacy is in US schools, and most respondents are Americans, citizens of the world's only super-power, which likes to police the world.

It would be interesting to see the results if a similar test was conducted among the 535 voting members of the US Congress, who like to point fingers at the rest of the world in frequent hearings about global, regional and China-related issues.

One reason for such low global literacy could be the fact that TV networks in the US include very little international news despite the fact that many global hot spot issues are directly linked to US foreign policy.

The National Committee on US-China Relations held its annual China Town Hall event on Tuesday evening, featuring keynote speaker Henry Kissinger. The event included local programs in 85 venues across the US to educate people about key issues in US-China relations.

As I observed in the Confucius Institute US Center in Washington, such events would help improve people's global literacy about China.

While the more than 310,000 Chinese students enrolling in US universities are a source of education about China, only 5 percent of a total of 304,467 US students studying abroad during the 2013/14 academic year went to China, trailing the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and France.

There is no doubt that US has much to do to educate its young generation about the world.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com