政治、軍事、社會文化差異影響對外（跨國）華語教學成效。美國高等教育界對於華語教學的態度隨伴時光流逝而多次易變更迭，約略四個時期：首先，中國封建王朝時期的排華歧視；第二，朝代滅亡到第二次世界大戰抗日聯盟；第三，冷戰時期民主陣線聯手對抗共產國家以及中共「門戶緊閉」政策時期；第四，中共改革開放「門戶洞開」政策時期到二十一世紀現今排華種族歧視與熱情迎擁中國經濟利益的雙面矛盾。本文主講美國高等教育界對於華語教學的種種改變，研究視角與方法採取多元考量，囊括政治、軍事、社會文化、制度機制、財經、外交、種族、語文、教育、政府權力消長等等層面。

Political, military, and sociocultural differences across national boundaries affected results of Chinese-language teaching. US attitudes toward Chinese-language teaching in higher education have been varying over time: first, Chinese feudalist dynasties; second, from China's final dynasty to the US-China military comradeship against Japan during WWII; third, from the post-WWWII period and Cold War to the end of the Chinese Communist Government's ＂Close-Door＂ Policy; fourth, from Mainland China's ＂Open-Door＂ Policy to the current US mixture of anti-Chinese racism and welcome of Chinese-ness in the 21st century. This article outlines changes of TCFL (teaching Chinese as a foreign language) or TCSL (teaching Chinese a second language) in US higher education by taking political, military, sociocultural, institutional, financial, diplomatic, ethnic, linguistic, educational, and governmental power struggles into serious consideration.