The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it will begin the process of “aggressively” revoking student visas for Chinese nationals studying in the United States.
“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,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
The administration will additionally be reviewing its existing “visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” according to the secretary.
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U.S. lawmakers and government officials have long highlighted security concerns associated with granting hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals the ability to study at American universities every year.
In March, a coalition of GOP House members introduced legislation to prevent such individuals from obtaining U.S. student visas. When releasing the bill, sponsor and Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., cited several recent cases in which Chinese nationals studying in the U.S. were reportedly apprehended for espionage-related activities.
One example cited by the congressman was an October 2024 FBI indictment involving five Chinese nationals who were charged for allegedly spying on a U.S. military base in Northern Michigan. According to Campus Reform, the five individuals — who had recently graduated from the University of Michigan — were purportedly taking photos of military equipment during an August 2023 training exercise between U.S. National Guard forces and Taiwanese military personnel.
Another incident occurred in January 2024, when a Chinese national studying at the University of Minnesota was apprehended after using a drone to surveil a U.S. shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. The individual, Fengyun Shi, was convicted under the Espionage Act in July, and later sentenced to six months in prison in December. U.S. immigration officials announced his deportation from the country last week.
The reported incidents came several years after the first Trump administration’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence raised concerns over the Chinese government weaponizing America’s student visa program to increase its surveillance activities. In its 2019 “Worldwide Threat Assessment,” the ODNI disclosed that “China’s intelligence services will exploit the openness of American society, especially academia and the scientific community, using a variety of means.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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