Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced late Wednesday that the U.S. will “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students.
The announcement included few details regarding how many visas would be revoked. He indicated it would focus on people with connections to the Chinese Communist Party, or students who are studying subjects considered sensitive.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. 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,” he said in a statement.
“We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” he added.
It was unclear why the announcement was made on Wednesday, and this may indicate a further deterioration in the relationship between China’s leadership and President Donald Trump.
Approximately 277,000 Chinese students studied in the U.S. last year. That makes them the second-largest group of foreign students in the United States.
The action comes at a time of intensifying scrutiny of the ties between U.S. higher education and China. House Republicans this month pressed Duke University to cut its ties with a Chinese university, saying it allowed Chinese students to gain access to federally funded research at Duke.
Last year, House Republicans issued a report warning that hundreds of millions of dollars in defense funding were going to research partnerships linked to the Chinese government, providing “back-door access to the very foreign adversary nation whose aggression these capabilities are necessary to protect against.”
The Department of Homeland Security raised similar issues in a letter barring international students at Harvard University last week. Secretary Kristi Noem accused Harvard of “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party,” citing research collaborations with Chinese scholars. It also accused Harvard of training members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a Chinese paramilitary group.
The announcement came a day after Rubio halted the scheduling of new visa interviews for international students as the department prepares guidelines for increased vetting of their social media activity.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
