In this May 2012 file photo, Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa application interviews in Beijing, China. Thousands of Chinese students are flocking to U.S. colleges and universities, helping to drive the number of international students studying in America to record levels, according to a report released Nov. 11, 2013. Photo: AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan
BEIJING - Chinese students have shown an insatiable appetite for attending U.S. colleges - last year alone, more than 235,000 were enrolled at American institutions of higher education. But now, China is grousing that the SAT may impose American values on its best and brightest, who in preparation for the exam might be studying the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights instead of "The Selected Works of Mao Zedong."

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The U.S. College Board in March announced plans to redesign the SAT to include U.S. founding documents in one portion of the test, known as the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, by spring 2016.

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But those are the exact values that the Chinese Communist Party has deemed as threatening to its rule; Chinese activists who have tried to promote such values have been silenced or even sentenced to prison. Human rights advocate Xu Zhiyong, who initiated the "New Citizens Movement" to promote such values, was sentenced in January to four years in prison.

###### Author Kelly Yang argued the new focus on civil liberties may "change the mindset and world view of an entire generation of Chinese youth."

"If the new SAT succeeds, it will be the first time America is able to systematically shape the views, beliefs and ideologies of hundreds of thousands of Chinese students every year, not through a popular television show or a politician's speaking tour, but through what the Chinese care about most - exams," she wrote.

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Yang's remarks and the news agency's report didn't sit well with some Chinese intellectuals, who called on the government to ease its ideological control on students rather than make accusations against a foreign exam.

"I don't think they have grounds to question what's in the SAT before they cancel all the 'political classes' in Chinese schools," said Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Renmin University.

###### Chinese students are required to take "thoughts and morals" lessons to study Communist ideology as early as first grade. In China's college entrance exams, questions regarding core Communist theories such as Marxism and Maoism are essential to a student's success.

###### Others look to a Western education because they regard China's system as stagnant and uninspiring.

According to figures from the Institute of International Education, the number of Chinese students studying in U.S. universities has grown 20 percent annually for over six years, and in 2010, China overtook India as the country that sends the largest number of foreign students to the United States. ######

To improve their chances of being admitted to undergraduate programs at prestigious American universities, many Chinese high school students take the SAT, which is not administered in mainland China.

Approved test centers based in Hong Kong became the top option for many Chinese students willing to take the test. ######

According to the Hong Kong newspaper Wenweipo, it cost on average $516 for a student from mainland China to take the SAT, including travel expenses and accommodations. Test preparation services for the SAT have seen substantial growth in China, where students are being charged as much as $1,000 for the lessons.

###### A total of 9.39 million students took the Chinese test in 2014, according to the Ministry of Education.

Instead of pointing fingers at the redesigned SAT, China's government should look for an answer domestically, the political scientist from Renmin University suggested.

"Why is Chinese higher education losing its appeal to our students? ######]]>