The Trump administration has announced plans to “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese students studying in the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that this initiative would target “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, Rubio emphasized, “Under President Trump’s leadership, the US State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
The move comes as relations between Beijing and Washington have plummeted, with a tit-for-tat trade war escalating due to Trump’s tariffs. On Monday, Rubio, who serves as America’s top diplomat, instructed US embassies worldwide to halt the scheduling of student visa appointments as the State Department prepares to increase social media vetting for such applicants.
Estimates indicate that around 280,000 Chinese students were studying in the US last year. The Trump administration has already initiated deportations of certain foreign students and revoked thousands of visas, although many of these actions have faced legal challenges.
Additionally, the administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for universities, as Trump perceives some of America’s most elite institutions, such as Harvard, as overly liberal and accuses them of failing to combat antisemitism on campus. This policy shift could significantly impact US universities, which often rely on foreign students for a substantial portion of their funding, as these scholars typically pay higher tuition fees.
Visa criteria will be revised to “enhance scrutiny” of future visa applicants from China and Hong Kong, Rubio added.
The united states and China remains prominent in global trade and economy formulation and direction