May 29 \u2013 President Donald Trump\u2019s administration says it will \u201caggressively\u201d revoke the visas of Chinese students studying in the US.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement the move would include \u201cthose with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields\u201d.<\/p>\n
Criteria will also be revised to \u201cenhance scrutiny\u201d of future visa applicants from China and Hong Kong, Rubio added.<\/p>\n
Relations between Beijing and Washington have plummeted in recent months as a tit-for-tat trade war erupted between the two superpowers sparked by Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Rubio, who is America\u2019s top diplomat, ordered\u00a0US embassies around the world<\/a>\u00a0to stop scheduling appointments for student visas as the state department prepares to expand social media vetting of such applicants.<\/p>\n Estimates indicate there were around 280,000 Chinese students studying in the US last year.<\/p>\n Chinese nationals used to account for the bulk of international students enrolled at American universities, though that has recently changed.<\/p>\n From pandemic-era restrictions to worsening relations between the two countries, their number has dropped in recent years,\u00a0according to US state department data<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rubio said in Wednesday\u2019s statement: \u201cUnder President Trump\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People\u2019s Republic of China and Hong Kong.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration has already moved to deport a number of foreign students, while revoking thousands of visas for others. Many of these actions have been blocked by the courts.<\/p>\n It has also frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for universities. The president sees some of America\u2019s most elite institutions, such as Harvard, as too liberal and accuses them of failing to combat antisemitism on campus.<\/p>\n Many US universities rely on foreign students for a significant chunk of their funding \u2013 as those scholars often pay higher tuition fees.<\/p>\n