US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio has announced that the United States will “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students.”
This marks a major escalation of tensions with Beijing and another blow to American higher education institutions.
The top US diplomat said that the State Department would work with the Department of Homeland Security on the revocations, which will target Chinese students, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” He added, “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 announcement by the US Secretary of state came after China criticised his department’s decision a day earlier to suspend visa appointments for students worldwide at least temporarily.
A cable signed by Rubio ordered US embassies and consulates not to allow “any additional student or exchange visa … appointment capacity until further guidance is issued” on ramping up screening of applicants’ social media accounts.
China’s foreign ministry Spokesperson, Mao Ning on Wednesday said Beijing urged Washington to “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China.”
Rubio has already trumpeted the revocation of thousands of visas, largely to international students who were involved in activism critical of Israel.
The Trump administration has already sought to end permission for all international students at Harvard University, which has rebuffed pressure from the president.
President Donald Trump in his previous term also took aim at Chinese students but focused attention on those in sensitive fields or with explicit links with the military.
It was unclear to what extent Rubio’s statement marked an escalation.
Chinese Students Top Source Of International Students In The US
Young Chinese people have long been crucial to US universities, which rely on international students paying full tuition.
China sent 277,398 students in the 2023-24 academic year, although India for the first time in years surpassed it, according to a state department-backed report of the Institute of International Education.
China was the top source of international students in the US for 15 straight years until it was surpassed by India just last year, according to figures from Open Doors, a State Department-backed database tracking international student enrollment.
After decades of growth, the number of Chinese students in the US reached a peak of over 372,000 in the 2019-2020 school year, before declining to more than 270,000 in the 2023-2024 year – a drop that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic but also increasing friction between the two governments.
For decades, American universities have attracted some of China’s brightest minds. Seen as a path to a prestigious education and better career opportunities, US colleges have drawn Chinese students from middle-class families as well as the political and business elites.
Many Chinese officials have sent their children to American schools, including leader Xi Jinping, whose daughter Xi Mingze studied at Harvard under a pseudonym.
Some top Chinese officials have been educated in the US themselves. Liu He, Xi’s former economic tsar, obtained a MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in the 1990s; Wang Huning, the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology guru, was a visiting scholar at the University of Iowa in the 1980s.
Zichen Wang, a research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, a non-government think tank in Beijing, stated, “Many of China’s officials, entrepreneurs, and scientists — especially those who played key roles during the era of reform and opening-up — received their training in the US.”
He added that when they returned to China, they brought back not only professional knowledge and credentials, but also a deep respect and admiration for America as an open and inclusive society.
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