No "critical fields": Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday evening that the visas of certain Chinese students would soon be revoked, especially those studying in "critical fields" and those with ties of any sort to the Chinese Communist Party, and that greater scrutiny would be applied to future visa applicants.
This isn't the first time a Trump administration has attempted a crackdown, but this one is likely to be much more widespread. "In 2020, officials in the first Trump administration canceled the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese graduate students and researchers after announcing they were banning from campuses Chinese citizens with direct ties to military universities in their country," reports The New York Times. "It was the first time the U.S. government had moved to bar a category of Chinese students from getting access to American universities, a ban the Biden administration kept in place."
"Such a politicized and discriminatory move lays bare the US lie behind the so-called freedom and openness that the US touts," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. "It will only further undermine its image in the world and national reputation."
