The federal government will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese international students, including those studying in “critical fields,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday — the latest restriction on foreign students.
“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,” Rubio wrote in a statement.
Rubio also said the government will “revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
China is the second-largest country of origin for international students, behind only India. In the 2023-24 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States.
Beijing blasted the announcement. French news agency AFP quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning as saying the U.S. “has unreasonably cancelled Chinese students’ visas under the pretext of ideology and national rights. China firmly opposes this and has lodged representations with the U.S.”
The U.S. 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.
Credit: cbsnews
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