This paper traces the development of Chinese students educated in America from 1868 to 1969 and discusses the impact that education had on returning students and the influence that these students exerted on the economic, political, and cultural institutions of China. Before 1949, more Chinese studied in the United States than in Europe or the Soviet Union. Participation of American-trained students in the two revolutions of modern China, however, was far less than that of students educated in and returned from Japan, who carried out the revolution of 1911, or students returned from the Soviet Union, who carried out the revolution of 1949. Participation of American trained students was low because the American system was incompatible with Chinese institutions, and they attempted to revitalize China's declining society by adapting to Westernization. Furthermore, many students sent abroad remained in America where they could not influence change in China or were alienated from the peasant masses. American-trained students made significant contributions by: 1) injecting science and technology into China's culture; 2) introducing the American mass educational system that replaced the old Chinese examination institution; and, 3) maintaining a continuous supply of trained students as the nucleus of China's scientific and engineering man-power. (SJM)