The American administration made another anti-Chinese demarche when it canceled the visas of more than a thousand students and scientists from the PRC. According to Washington, they are allegedly connected with the Chinese military and engaged in espionage.
Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, accused China of “abusing student visas to exploit the American academic community”.
“We are blocking visas for some Chinese graduate students and researchers associated with China’s military fusion strategy to prevent them from stealing or otherwise appropriating confidential research”, – the official said.
The Chinese make up the largest proportion of international students at US universities. In 2018-2019, about 370 thousand people from China were enrolled.
The US State Department has already confirmed that over a thousand visas have been revoked in accordance with a June 1 presidential order.
“High-risk graduate students and researchers disqualified under this ruling represent a small fraction of the total number of Chinese students and academics coming to American universities”, – a State Department spokeswoman told The Guardian, without disclosing details of the cancellation of visas.