The United States will “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students studying in the country, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced, as the administration of President Donald Trump continues its crackdown on foreign students enrolled at higher education institutions in the US.
Rubio announced the shock move in a post on X, as well as a State Department statement published late on Wednesday, titled “New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China”.
“Under President Trump’s 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,” the statement said.
“We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” it added.
China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the US, behind India. Chinese students made up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the US during the 2023-2024 school year, at more than 270,000 in total.
The action against Chinese students comes at a time of growing friction between Washington and Beijing after Trump accused China of exploiting the US on trade and triggered a tariff war upon returning to the White House for a second term.
US House of Representatives Republicans have also deemed ties between US and Chinese academic institutions to be a threat to national security.
Earlier this month, Michigan Congressmen John Moolenaar and Tim Walberg pressed Duke University in the US to end its relationship with Wuhan University in China over concerns about technology transfer.
Moolenaar and Walberg claimed that the educational partnership created a “direct pipeline between US innovation and China’s military-industrial complex”.