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The Trump administration says
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it will aggressively revoke the visas of Chinese students studying in the United States.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this would include those with connections
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to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical field.
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Last year, there were an estimated 280,000 Chinese students studying in the US,
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and it's not clear how many of them could be affected.
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Relations between Beijing and Washington have plummeted in recent months
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as a tit for tat trade war erupted
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between the two superpowers sparked by Donald Trump's tariffs.
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This morning, the Chinese foreign ministry has given its reaction
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and our Beijing correspondent Laura Bicker has this analysis.
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The foreign ministry here in Beijing has described a move
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by the United States to revoke the visas of Chinese students
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as discriminatory and based on the pretext of ideology and national security.
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The foreign ministry spokesperson Ma Ning went on to say that
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this move would damage the reputation of the United States in the international community.
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Now there are a few things that are very unclear about
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what the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced.
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He has said that the visas of those close to the Communist Party will be revoked.
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However, there are around 100 million members of the Communist Party here in China.
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"How close does a family member have to be
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to have their visa revoked?" is one question many people are asking.
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There are also around 280,000 Chinese students currently studying in the United States.
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Will they be in fear of having their visas revoked
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even if they already have them in place?
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Many questions being asked at this time.
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Now, the Trump administration has done this before.
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In 2020, the Trump administration revoked the visas of a thousand Chinese students.
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Since then, there has been an agreement between China and the United States
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with the previous president Joe Biden and President Xi
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when they met in 2023 to encourage more cultural exchanges.
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In fact, President Xi says he wants to see 50,000 US students studying here
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in China in the coming years.
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But it does seem now that these kind of academic and people-to-people exchanges
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have become the latest victim of competition between the two superpowers.
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Laura Bicker reporting.
