The United States will begin “aggressively” revoking student visas for Chinese nationals, particularly those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in sensitive academic fields, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday.
The action represents an escalation of the Trump administration’s renewed effort to overhaul foreign student policy and tighten security at American universities.
Rubio said that future visa applications from both mainland China and Hong Kong would face increased scrutiny.
The administration, he added, is also reviewing embassy protocols, with interviews for student visa applicants temporarily halted worldwide as part of an intensified vetting process that includes reviewing applicants’ social media histories.
The move also came on the heels of President Donald Trump’s call on Wednesday for Harvard University to limit foreign student enrollment to 15%.
Move could re-ignite tensions after temporary truce in US-China trade war
The announcement comes just weeks after a temporary truce in the US-China trade war was struck in Geneva.
That agreement saw both nations agree to a 90-day reduction in tariffs to create space for further negotiations.
However, the visa crackdown threatens to open a new front in the strained relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
In Beijing, Chinese officials have not yet formally responded to the move.
But Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, warned the action “builds a wall between the two countries” and risks derailing upcoming trade talks, Bloomberg said.
The new restrictions add to broader tensions over US export controls on advanced semiconductors to China and Beijing’s retaliatory efforts to curb American access to rare earth minerals vital to technology production.
A long-running focus of scrutiny on Chinese students in the US
Chinese students have faced growing scrutiny in the US for years, particularly during Donald Trump’s first term.
In 2020, the administration revoked the visas of over 1,000 Chinese students and researchers over concerns they were linked to the Chinese military.
That same year, the State Department ordered the Confucius Institute US Center to register as a foreign mission, citing national security threats.
The Justice Department’s “China Initiative,” launched in 2018, aimed to prosecute Chinese researchers suspected of espionage.
The program was ultimately disbanded in 2022 after critics said it encouraged racial profiling and unfairly targeted Asian-American academics.
The revival of such measures under Trump’s renewed presidency is seen as part of a broader ideological push.
Hours before Rubio’s statement, President Trump called for Harvard University to cap foreign student enrollment at 15%, marking a sharp turn in federal involvement in higher education policy.
The administration has also clashed with major universities over issues ranging from antisemitism to the influence of foreign funding.
Visa crackdown could hit thousands
In remarks to senators last week, Rubio estimated that the number of revoked student visas was already “probably in the thousands.”
He defended the policy by emphasizing that “a visa’s not a right — it’s a privilege.”
China is currently the second-largest source of international students in the United States, trailing only India.
The planned visa revocations may have significant financial implications for American universities, many of which rely on tuition from foreign students to support their budgets.
With diplomatic relations already under strain, the visa policy could become a central point of friction in an increasingly adversarial US-China relationship.
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