As Washington tightens its undergraduate visa issuance, rising geopolitical tensions and trade war are having an impact on people-to-people exchanges between the US and China.  ,
Despite not providing specifics, the Trump administration reportedly revoked the visas of more than a thousand international students over the course of the previous month.
According to some media reports, the move may be connected to an executive order that US President Donald Trump signed in late January of this year to look into foreign students who had protested in favor of Palestine on US colleges or posted anti-Hamas messages on social media last year.
The majority of Chinese students who have just lost their permits are foreign students. The others are from Iran and India.
At least 1,300 international students and recent alumni at more than 200 US organizations were among the at least 1,300 who were cited as having seen their “legal standing change” in recent days, according to Inside Higher Education, a professional publication.  ,
One student was “detained at the border, denied entry, and deported to their home country,” according to the University of California San Diego (UCSD ). 35 students have had their F-1 visas revoked, according to the University of California San Diego (UCSD ). International students must have F-1 permits in order to research in the US, or they risk being deported.
A Chinese journalist from Shandong claims in an article that the US government’s recent decision to revoke international student permits is political campaign. He claims that many of those who posted pro-Palestine social media posts or participated in relevant protests are currently being investigated by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.  ,
The US government’s action may appear to be a crackdown on some regulations, but the poet claims that the government wants to have a chilling influence during a sensitive time, referring to the business battle. ” Targeting foreign students may win local hardliners and halt large-scale protests,” says the statement.
He claims it’s absurd that immigration officials asked an American student who posted a photo of children in Gaza to discuss any connections to Hamas to him.
He goes on to say that this “witch hunt” damages the income of American universities by hurting several major international talents.  ,
After learning that the US had revoked the visas of thousands of foreign students, some Chinese families who had planned to send their kids to the US for education had changed their minds. According to The South China Morning Post, on April 17, some Chinese families who had planned to send their children to the US changed their minds.
According to the SCMP, some parents wanted their children to switch from the Advanced Placement ( AP ) curriculum to the International Baccalaureate ( IB ) or A-level, according to a Shanghai-based study-abroad agent. The IB and A-level courses are for universities in Europe and the UK, while the AP education is for applying to American universities.
Four Chinese students sued in California on April 11 after the US federal revoked the visas of at least 529 students, faculty, and experts from 88 American institutions.
36 foreign students from 30 institutions across the US had written statements to a local judge over the weekend of April 12 through April 13, according to Clay Zhu, an attorney and managing partner at DeHeng Law Offices ‘ Silicon Valley company who represents the defendants.
One from Taiwan, three from Iran, and one from India, according to Zhu, are all from the Chinese island. He added that the complaint is intended to safeguard the rights of all foreign individuals who are impacted. Within a few days, a prosecutor may make a decision.
Trump’s executive get
On October 7, 2023, Hamas, a Palestinian republican, Sunni Islamist social group, attacked Jewish areas, killing about 1,200 citizens and seizing 251 victims. Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the deaths and accidents of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
On lots of US college schools last year, numerous pro-Palestine students staged protests.
Trump signed an Executive Order on January 29 to overcome anti-semitism. According to him, according to his 2019 Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism, students encounter anti-Semitic abuse in classrooms and on campus at universities and colleges. He claimed that Israeli students in the US have endured an unending barrage of bias and abuse since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.
At least 300 international students ‘ permits were suspended, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 27.
We won’t grant you that visa if you say you’re coming not just to review but also to participate in activities that damage institutions, abuse students, overtake buildings, and cause conflict, according to Rubio.
Beijing authorities have criticized Israel’s military activity in Gaza on numerous occasions since October 2023 and reaffirmed China’s help for a Palestinian state.  ,
Some Chinese students in the US followed Beijing’s lead by taking to the streets and posting pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas information on their social media accounts, but many of them then feel regret.
China’s Ministry of Education issued an international study alert on April 9th, urging Chinese students to examine security risks and increase their awareness of precautions if they plan to study in particular US states. The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism also recommended that travelers thoroughly assess the dangers of visiting the US on the same time.
Both warnings can be seen in the context of China’s retaliatory measures against the Trump administration’s 14 % tariff on all Chinese goods.
Additional issues
There were roughly 1.1 million foreign students studying in the US in 2024. In the academic year 2023/24, the number of Chinese students in the US was 277, 398, 4.2 % down from 289, 526 in 2022/23 or 25.5 % down from the historical peak of 372, 532 in 2019/2020, according to Statista.com.
The Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act ( Stop CCP VISAs Act ) was introduced by US Congressman Riley Moore on March 14. He claimed that Chinese students have been allegedly spied on by American military personnel or allegedly stealing cutting-edge technology from American companies.  ,
” Every year, we grant student visas to almost 300,000 Chinese immigrants who reside in the US. According to Moore,” We’ve invited the CCP to spie on our defense, thieve our intellectual property, and harm our national security.” Congress must put an end to China’s abuse of our student immigration system. It’s about time to turn off the pipe and soon forbid all student visas for Chinese citizens.
Five Chinese students were arrested last October by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) for photographing joint US-Taiwan live-fire military exercises near a military site in Michigan. Moore’s call came after the FBI arrested them. The reported incident took place in August of 2023.
The five were accused of conspiring to remove photographs from their devices and lying to authorities about their journey to Michigan. They received their degrees from the University of Michigan in flower of 2023. They were enrolled in a joint programme between Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and the University of Michigan.
The post-Cold War consensus that assumed China may empower and deregulate had been ineffective for years, according to US Senator Ashley Moody, who supports the Stop CCP Visas Act. Otherwise, the CCP abused American goodwill and subversively eluded it by sending officials to our shores to eavesdrop on dissidents and state rivals, as well as to smuggle billions of dollars worth of research and intellectual property.
According to a writer from Guangdong, if the US forbids Foreign learners from studying it, its universities will drop top students and significant incomes because foreign students pay several times more than local students.
Read more: Xi travels to Southeast Asia in the midst of China’s severe import problems.