I saw a recent CNA report out of Singapore talking about how at least in New Zealand/Australia and the US, the number of Chinese studies programs is falling and enrollments overall are down. In part this was attributed to anti-Asian sentiments but a big part of it (that the hosts laughed at) was how in the US particularly learning Chinese was equated to certain political leanings. Genuinely wonder if Russian language learners were treated the same when the USSR was around.

Anecdotally at least, I tend to find many more Europeans and Australians learning Mandarin than Americans.. this is of course not to leave out China's neighboring nations. Is there just a drop in formal study overall for the humanities that might contribute to this?

What do you all think?