China has lodged a protest over the US declaration that it will “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese students studying at US universities.
China’s ministry of foreign affairs told reporters on Thursday that it had formally objected to Washington over Wednesday’s announcement by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state.
A spokesperson for the Chinese government, Mao Ning, accused the Trump administration of using national security and ideology as a pretext for the “unreasonable” decision, which “seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupted the normal cultural exchanges between the two countries”.
She added: “This political and discriminatory practice of the US has exposed the lies of the so-called freedom and openness that the US has always advertised, and further damaged the US’s own international image, national image and national credibility.”
Rubio’s announcement had specifically cited increased scrutiny for students from China and Hong Kong, one of the largest sources of revenue for US universities.
It came after China criticised his department’s decision a day earlier to suspend visa appointments for students worldwide, at least temporarily, and a week after Trump’s administration sought to end permission for all international students at Harvard University, which had rebuffed pressure from the president.
Rubio said the US would “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.”
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 surpassed it for the first time in years, according to a report by the Institute of International Education, backed by the state department
In his previous term, Trump 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.
On Wednesday, Mao said Beijing had urged Washington to “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China”.
Rubio has trumpeted the revocation of thousands of visas, largely to international students who were involved in activism critical of Israel.
A diplomatic cable signed by Rubio on Tuesday ordered US embassies and consulates not to allow “any additional student or exchange visa … appointment capacity until further guidance is issued” on increasing screening of applicants’ social media accounts. The measures also threaten to put pressure on students from countries friendly to the US.
Trump is furious at Harvard for rejecting his administration’s push for oversight on admissions and hiring, amid his claims the school is a hotbed of antisemitism and “woke” liberal ideology.
A judge paused the order to bar foreign students pending a hearing scheduled for Thursday, the same day as the university’s graduation ceremony for which thousands of students and their families had gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The White House has also stripped Harvard, as well as other US universities widely considered among the world’s most elite, of federal funding for research.
Harvard has filed extensive legal challenges against Trump’s measures.
