Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning complained on Thursday that it was “unjustified” and hypocritical for the United States to revoke the visas of students linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
“The U.S. decision to revoke Chinese student visas is fully unjustified. It uses ideology and national security as pretext. It seriously hurts the lawful rights and interests of international students from China, and disrupts people-to-people exchanges between the two countries,” Mao said.
“This politically motivated and discriminatory move exposes the U.S. hypocrisy over freedom and openness. It will further damage the image and reputation of the U.S. itself,” she charged.
Mao said the Chinese government “firmly opposes” the U.S. decision and has lodged a formal protest.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the departments of State and Homeland Security would work together to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
“We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” he added.
Rubio’s brief statement did not elaborate on the exact reasons for the visa cancellations, but it was entitled, “New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China.”
Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV), who introduced a bill called the Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act (better known as the Stop CCP VISAs Act) in March, applauded Rubio’s statement.
“The CCP poses an existential threat to the U.S. We should not be letting 300,000 Chinese nationals into our research institutions every year,” Moore said.
“This is a huge move from the Trump Admin, and now Congress must codify the president’s agenda by passing my Stop CCP VISAs Act,” he said.
When Moore introduced his bill in March, he said America has “literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security.”
“Just last year, the FBI charged five Chinese nationals here on student visas after they were caught photographing joint US-Taiwan live fire military exercises. This cannot continue,” he said.
Moore was referring to an incident in August 2023, when five Chinese nationals studying at the University of Michigan, aged 21 to 23, were caught on the grounds of the National Guard’s Camp Grayling during a major training exercise that was attended by Taiwanese personnel. The students booked a motel room near Camp Grayling in advance, bypassed numerous warning signs to access the restricted area, and were carrying cameras when they were caught.
The FBI filed charges against the Chinese students for making false statements to investigators. They were indicted in October 2024.
“Nationals of the PRC are forced to engage in intelligence gathering and espionage, and those who refuse face retaliation and persecution against themselves and family members,” observed Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL), a supporter of Moore’s bill who introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
“It is unfortunate that the CCP’s draconian national security law requires us to take such drastic measures, but the risk of allowing this to continue unabated is too great to ignore,” Moody said.
Left-wing media outlets were unsurprisingly lax in recalling any of these readily-available details, preferring instead to characterize Rubio’s announcement as an inexplicable act of thoughtless malice.
The Associated Press, for example, published a lengthy article on Thursday that made room for quotes from anguished Chinese students, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s criticism, and comparisons of Rubio’s announcement to racist legislation from the 19th century, but did not mention Moore or Moody’s bill or any of the suspicious actions of Chinese student visa holders.
The New York Times published an even longer article on Thursday that found room to accuse the Trump administration of hypocrisy for complaining about free speech violations around the world, dug up an Obama administration official to complain about “shutting the door on Chinese students,” translated complaints from Chinese social media, and briefly mentioned the “fraught state” of relations with China during the Trump and Biden administrations, but did not mention any of the security concerns about Chinese student visa holders.
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