The US Secretary of State, announced tonight that the government of his country will begin to revoke the “visa of Chinese students, including those with connections with the Chinese communist party or studying in key fields.”
In a brief statement entitled “The new visas policies put the US first, not China,” Rubio indicated that the State Department and the National Security will collaborate to “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students.
“We will also review the criteria of the visas to enhance the scrutiny of all the future requests of visas of the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” adds the note.
In his X account, Rubio said that the US “will begin” to apply that measure, but without specifying when, neither without detailing what he refers to “key fields” of study.
In recent days, Beijing has criticized the hardening of access to higher education in the US for international students and today China’s exterior spokeswoman, MAO NO, urged Washington to protect their rights, specifically those of Chinese students.
“China believes that cooperation in education and academic exchanges should not be interrupted. We urge the US to protect the legal and legitimate rights and interests of all international students, including those of China,” said NO, according to a statement today.
The X app (formerly Twitter), on a smartphone.
Surveillance of profiles for all
Yesterday it was known that the government temporarily suspended the issuance of student visas while preparing to implement a new policy that includes a greater review of the social networks of the applicants, according to the media .
Rubio, sent a diplomatic cable to the US consulates in which he ordered “immediately” not to program new appointments to request visas from students or exchanges (categories f, m and j) until “new guidelines are issued”, which, he estimated, will occur “in the next few days”.
The objective, according to the government, is to “keep terrorists out of the country and fight anti -Semitism.” However, the measure has generated concern about its scope and possible consequences.
The Trump administration has put several universities, which it accuses of being progressive or even anti -Semitic, which aims to withdraw all federal funds and has forbidden to accept foreign students.
Trump considered excessive Wednesday that the number of foreign students in Harvard exceeds a quarter of the total and estimated to limit that quota to 15 %.
If implemented, the social media scrutiny would apply to all student visa applicants, not only to those indicated by political activism. Consular officials would examine the publications, comments and content shared on platforms such as Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Tiktok, in search of material that they consider a threat to national security.
According to PoliticoState Department officials have expressed their concern for the lack of clarity in the previous guidelines, such as the investigation of students who have participated in protests in university campuses. It is not clear, for example, if the publication of a photo of a Palestinian flag in an X account could lead to additional scrutiny.
The measure could have a significant impact on the American economy and higher education institutions. In the United States there are more than one million foreign students, who contribute almost 43.8 billion to the economy and maintain more than 378,000 jobs, according to the Association of International Educators (NAFSA).
