“Learn from barbarians to control barbarians”: what role has international education played in China's nation building?

PurposeThe goal is to explore the role of international education in a developing country's nation building in a mostly indigenous process.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews China's history of international education set in the larger context of different nation building tasks in the past two centuries.FindingsThe unique case of China with dramatic ups and downs in national fortunes in the past two hundred years serves to show that an open attitude to and an active engagement in international education are contributing factors for national prosperity. The case of China also serves to show that a self-determined agenda is of paramount importance in international education as a tool for nation building.Originality/valueFew studies so far have paid attention to the specific relationship between the internationalization of higher education and nation building, so the topic of the paper is an important one and a necessary addition to the existing literature. What has been the role of international education in China's national transformation? What contributions has international education made to China's achievement of nation building goals at different stages of this transformation process? What implications can other developing nations draw from China's case with regard to the role of international education in nation building? These are the questions the researchers hope to answer in this study.