A couple days ago, my Mother-In-Law’s Younger Brother, his Wife, their Daughter, and their Daughter’s Husband came from Fuzhou for a visit. I don’t know what “Little Uncle” and his wife do, but I seem to recall that he works in some small government bureau there.

His Daughter and Son-In-Law, though, both have B.A.’s and M.A.’s in Economics and Finance from Chinese universities, as does another of my Wife’s Cousins and his Wife.

The differences between the two cousins and their spouses, though, is a bit telling.

The latter couple got their B.A.’s in China in the mid-1990′s and were easily accepted into graduate degree programs in the United States, he (the Cousin) at Boston College, she (his Wife) at the University of Washington in Seattle. He went on to get a Ph.D. in Economics and is now a professor at Fordham University. She got an M.A. in Economics, worked for a consulting firm in Boston for several years, and is now working on her MBA at M.I.T.

This younger couple, however, could not get permission from the U.S. or China to study in the U.S.A. The U.S. said no because of tighter immigration restrictions in the post-9/11 world. China said no because it doesn’t want to risk the continued brain drain as evidenced by the pair who went abroad–and didn’t come back–in the 1990′s. “The window is almost completely closed from both sides” for Chinese finance students, the Cousin’s Husband, who is now a loan officer for a Chinese bank, told me.

And it’s closed not only for studies.

When this younger couple applied to travel to Europe for their honeymoon last year, their request was denied by the officials in their places of employment, this time because their studies and current jobs in China have given them privileged insights into the inner workings of the Chinese Economic Machine, and the higher-ups don’t want to risk those secrets “falling into enemy hands.”

Or so the Cousin’s Husband suggested to me a couple nights ago after we had been playing drinking games for awhile. (Turns out I had pretty good beginner’s luck with that dice game like you see actor Ge You playing at the beginning of the film “To Live.”)