Over the past couple weeks, the U.S. government has unleashed a barrage of policies that would restrict the ability of Chinese students to study in the United States. These measures strike at a key pillar of U.S.-China relations, and they have generated intense anxiety among current and prospective Chinese exchange students. According to data from the Institute of International Education, between 2023 and 2024, there were 277,398 Chinese students studying in the U.S., generating over $14.2 billion for the American economy.
A cable signed last Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered American embassies around the world to stop scheduling new appointments for student visas and announced an expansion of social-media vetting of student applicants. The week prior, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, who currently make up 27 percent of Harvard’s total enrollment. Last Wednesday, the State Department announced it would “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” and “enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.” (On Thursday, a U.S. federal judge extended an order blocking the government measures related to Harvard.)
On Chinese social media, discussion about the U.S. government’s visa restrictions, especially those related to Harvard, has been trending for days. Netizens commenting on Rubio’s announcement expressed resignation and triumph, as some nationalists anticipated it would lead to an influx of talent to Chinese universities. Some Chinese students on social media platform Xiaohongshu [RedNote] described themselves as “Harvard refugees.” Chinese graduate Yurong Luanna Jiang delivered a speech at a Harvard graduation ceremony calling for unity: “If we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget: those we label as enemies – they, too, are human. In seeing their humanity, we find our own.” The speech went viral on Chinese social media, and one RedNote user wrote, “That she is able to stand on an international stage and speak the heart of Chinese students has moved me to tears.” Laurie Chen and Larissa Liao from Reuters provided more detail on how the U.S. visa restrictions reverberated across Chinese social media:
"It’s pretty absurd. It doesn’t seem like something that should happen these days. I scrolled social media and felt quite anxious seeing other people’s reactions," said Chen, 22, who has a postgraduate offer to study a humanities subject from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
[…] In their posts on RedNote, a few Chinese social media users also reported additional scrutiny of their listed social media accounts from U.S. consular officials during visa interviews this week.
[…] "The iron fist has come down," wrote an anonymous Chinese PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on RedNote on Thursday.
"The good days are over and a new round of hard times will begin for international students." [Source]
Other online reactions compared international students’ reception in the U.S. and China. A WeChat article from popular commentator Xiang Dongliang discussed government and public perceptions of exchange students in China and the U.S., respectively, and noted that while the Chinese government has made efforts to attract international students, the Chinese public is often critical of government financial support for those students. Xiang argued that the situation is reversed in the U.S., with American universities and the general public seeming fairly supportive of international students, while the government is driving the current crackdown on international student visas and enrollment.
The comments section under the U.S. Embassy in China’s WeChat account, which posted the news of Rubio’s cable, was particularly lively. Some commenters bemoaned the way that Chinese exchange students have been tarnished as “spies” both at home and abroad, and noted the similarity in language used by Rubio and Chinese entrepreneur Dong Mingzhu, who claimed that her company would never hire Chinese returnee students, for fear they might be spies. CDT Chinese editors compiled some of the comments from the U.S. Embassy WeChat account, a selection of which are translated below:
Hsu: You can still study abroad … in Russia, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, or Laos.
黎明: Yup, those [countries] are all our good buddies.
栗晨皓: The closed-door policy strikes again.
A会计学历: What’s wrong with expanding educational exchange? Openness and inclusivity are good things.
树: What happened to the generosity, magnanimity, and optimism that Americans have always prided themselves on?
王磊: Judging from this comments section, the U.S. Embassy in China is staying true to the original American spirit and upholding freedom of speech. Thumbs up for the U.S. Embassy in China!
寻找桃花岛6: It’s a commonly accepted principle that people who’ve seen the outside world are harder to control, while poorly educated rednecks are more docile, and will believe it when you tell them they’re "winning."
周晓峰: Dong Mingzhu says, "Returnee students might be spies." Rubio says, "Exchange students might be spies." Populism always starts off by attacking international cooperation and exchange, and by slandering ordinary people. [Chinese]
While some Chinese students persisted with their plans to study in the U.S., many expressed concern and doubted whether they could continue to pursue an American education. A 25-year-old Ivy League Ph.D. student named Justin told The Financial Times that he is now abandoning his long-held plan to stay in the U.S., saying, “If the government sets such a precedent . . . allowing xenophobic sentiments to go unchecked, there will inevitably come a time when large-scale anti-Chinese incidents occur,” adding, “The US is no longer an ideal place for scientific research.” Leaving the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, 18-year-old Li Kunze told The New York Times, “I don’t even know if they can give me this visa that I just got. I can only brace myself.” He added, “In the future, if I can avoid going to the United States to study, I will. They make people too scared.” As Fu Ting, Kanis Leung, and Huizhong Wu reported for AP, many other Chinese students expressed fear, anger, and disappointment:
Rubio’s announcement was a “new version of the Chinese Exclusion Act,” said Linqin, a Chinese student at Johns Hopkins University, who asked to be identified only by his first name out of fear of retaliation. He was referring to a 19th-century law that prohibited Chinese from immigrating to the U.S. and banned Chinese people already in the U.S. from getting citizenship. He said Wednesday was the first time he thought about leaving the U.S. after spending a third of his life here.
[…] Chen, an incoming Chinese student at Purdue University who only gave his last name out of concern for retaliation by the Trump administration, has been waiting anxiously in China for his visa approval. But he was also angry, and said this was the exact opposite of what he thought the U.S. stood for.
“I was expecting freedom and tolerance. The U.S. was known for its diversity which allows international students to fit in, but it is a pity to see such change,” he said. [Source]
Education industry experts have already noted a shift in the outflow of Chinese students. Cathy Tu, a Chinese AI researcher who runs an education consultancy in Beijing, told The Washington Post that many of her students are now applying to universities in other countries, adding, “I studied in the U.S. because I loved what America is about: it’s open, inclusive and diverse. Now my students and I feel slapped in the face by Trump’s policy.” Pippa Ebel, an independent education consultant in the southern city of Guangzhou, said while the government’s measures did not entirely shut the door to U.S. higher education, it was “likely to be a final nudge towards other destinations.” Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee said that the measures present “a big opportunity for Hong Kong” and that his government “will provide the best assistance and arrangements for those who choose to continue their studies in Hong Kong.”
Analysts and journalists also expressed pessimism about the visa restrictions and concern about their potentially broad impact. “I doubt the Trump administration will narrowly define ‘connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields’, and so this move will likely have massive repercussions and unintended consequences, some of which may benefit the PRC and harm the US, not to mention the personal cost for those students already studying at US schools who will now be kicked out of the country,” Bill Bishop wrote in his Sinocism newsletter. Yingyi Ma at Brookings wrote, “The new revoking of Harvard international student and scholar visa is completely self sabotaging.” Contextualizing the visa restrictions, Rui Zhong argued that “Rubio’s Chinese exclusion is racist security theater…meant to keep borders closed first and think about China as an afterthought.” James Palmer at Foreign Policy argued, “Even if the Trump administration walks back its campaign against international students, a lot of damage has already been done.” Zichen Wang stated that “the latest move will harm students and further strain U.S.-China relations, while undermining America’s long-term strategic and economic interests.”