On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the administration of President Donald Trump would “aggressively” revoke Chinese student visas.
The move comes at a time when Washington and Beijing are attempting to reach a trade agreement to end the world’s two largest economies’ spiraling tariff war. The Trump administration is currently trying to impose restrictions on international students attending US universities.
Rubio’s announcement is the most dramatic action a US administration has ever taken against students from any particular nation, despite China hawks in the US calling for greater oversight of the country’s students at American universities and alleging that some of them may be Beijing’s spies.
How might it affect students, American universities, US-China relations, and the US itself:
What has Rubio announced?
Rubio stated in an X-post that “the US will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or those studying in important fields.”
What qualifies as a “critical field” is not defined by the US. However, a House of Representatives-led US congressional committee sent a letter to senior academic institutions in California and the United States in March asking for information about Chinese students enrolling in advanced science, technology, engineering, and medicine programs on their campuses.
The chairman of the congressional committee, John Moolenaar, claimed that China was putting its students in top research programs to access sensitive technology.
According to Moolenaar, “The Chinese Communist Party has established a well-documented, systematic pipeline to embed researchers in leading US institutions, giving them direct exposure to sensitive technologies with dual-use military applications,” adding that many Chinese students who have earned degrees immigrate to the US or other Western nations.
This pattern raises important questions about how much knowledge is ultimately transferred back to China once they have gained expertise in highly developed fields, he said.
Rubio did not specify what “connections” would be made between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the only significant political party in the one-party nation of China. One in every four Chinese citizens has an immediate relative in the CCP, which is equivalent to about 100 million card-carrying citizens in a nation with 400 million families.
A press release with the title “New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China” was also published by the US State Department website.
Rubio continued, “We will also change the visa requirements to improve the scrutiny of all pending applications for visas from Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China.”
Rubio made the announcement following a memo that stated the US had ordered its foreign embassies to halt scheduling visa interviews for all foreign students while the State Department plans to expand the social media screening of applicants.
What has China done to date?
Beijing has criticized the Trump administration’s action, calling it “political and discriminatory.”
Under the pretext of ideology and national rights, the US has unlawfully suspended visas for Chinese students, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday. China has filed representations with the US and is steadfast against this.
Mao added that the US government’s decision had “seriously damaged” the rights of Chinese students and undermined Washington and Beijing’s standard cultural exchange.
Mao remarked that “the US has exposed the lies of the so-called freedom and openness that the US has always promoted” and that this is a result of its political and discriminatory behavior.
The spokesperson added that the action “further damaged the US’s own international reputation, reputation, and credibility.”
How many students study in China?
According to the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the US State Department’s annual Open Doors report, 277, 398 Chinese students enrolled in US universities between the academic year 2023 and 2024, making up 24.5 percent of the 1.13 million international students.
Only Indian students outnumbered Chinese students. According to Open Doors, India took the top spot for the first time since 2009 during the academic year 2024-2024.
Which universities have a sizable student body from China?
China accounted for 46.8% of the world’s total student population at Carnegie Mellon University as of 2023, making up the top nation of origin for international students.
More than half of the international student body, or 51.6%, are Chinese students at New York University.
China accounts for 51.6% of New York University’s international student population, making up the country’s top-one nation of origin. In the 2023-2024 academic year, the university had 14, 072 Chinese students out of 27, 247 foreign students.
According to a report from Duke University, the institute had 5, 000 international students in 2024, with China and India as its main two countries of origin.
According to the institute’s website, China accounts for half of Northwestern University’s international student population. The Northwestern University Graduate Workers wrote an open letter to universities on Thursday, urging them to reject the congressional committee’s March requests for information about Chinese students.
What kind of income do these students bring to the US?
US universities make billions of dollars from international students’ tuition costs. However, these students also benefit local economies.
According to data released by the non-profit organization NAFSA: Association of International Educators, international students studying at US colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion to the country’s economy and supported more than 378, 000 jobs between the academic years 2023-2024.
According to a NAFSA release from November 2024, this economic activity is the organization’s highest estimate ever.
According to NAFSA data, there are 1.1 million foreign students studying in the US, which means that an international student contributes about $ 39,800 to the economy each year.
According to that calculation, the US economy that year would have been made up of more than $11 billion if there had been 277, 398 Chinese students studying there in 2023-2024.
What kind of impact have graduates from China made on the US?
International students in the US make a significant contribution to American innovation once they graduate, according to a study conducted by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) in 2022. 55% of US-based startups valued at more than a billion dollars were founded by immigrants.
More than 50, 000 Chinese PhD scientists have resided in the US since 2000, funding scientific research and founding startups that had a combined $100 billion in 2022.
According to the NFAP, they include 21 billion-dollar businesses, some of which are also known as unicorns.
Pony is one of these recognizable unicorns. AI, a technology company for autonomous driving, was founded in 2016 and is currently valued at $6.4 billion on the NASDAQ exchange. James Peng and Lou Tiancheng, both of whom received undergraduate degrees from Beijing’s Tsinghua University, founded the business. Co-founder Peng is a Stanford University PhD holder.
