Students or spies? The Young Chinese Caught in Trump’s Crosshairs – ryan

Xiao Chen turned up at the us US Consulate in Shanghai on Thursday Morning, Hours after Washington Announched That It Wauld “AGGRESSIVISTY” revoke the visas of Chinese students.

The 22-Yaar-Old Had a Visa Appointment: She was headed to michigan in the autumn to study communications.

AFTER A “PLEASANT” Conversation, She was Told Her Application Had Been Reject. She was not given a reason.

“I Feel Like A Drifting duckweed tossed in Wind and Storm,” She Said, Using a Common Chinese Expression to Describe Both uncetain and Helpress.

She had been hopoful Becausea she Already Had the Acceptance Letter. And she thought she had no narrowly escaped the bombshells in recent days.

First, Donald Trump’s Administration Moved to End Harvard University’s Ability to enrol International students, do you have since blocked in court. And thatn it said it has stopped Visa Appointments for all foreign students.

But now, Chen is Ready for Plan B. “if I can’t get the Visa Eventually, i’ll probably take a gap year.

A Valid Visa May Still Not Be Enough, She Adds, Because Students with Visas Could Be “Stopped at the Airport and Deported”.

“It”s Bad for Every Chinese Student. The Only Difference is How Bad.”

It has ben a bleak week for international students in the US – and spreads Harder for the 280,000 or so chinese students who were notized that they have been singled out.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Accused Harvard of “Co-Outinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio Said That The Move Against Chinese in the US Woulde “Those with Connections to the Chinese Communist Party or Studying in Critical Fields”.

That is a wide a wide swathe of saying gioven memership of the communist party is Common Among Officials, Entrepreneurs, Business People and Eights Artists and Celebrities in China.

Beijing has calmed it a “politically motivated and discrimination action”, and itign minister has lodged a formal protest.

There is a time when China Sent the Highest Number of Foreign Students to American Campus. But Those Numbers Slipped As The Relationship Between The Two Countries Siured.

A more Powerful and increasingly asserting beijing is now clasing with Washington for supremacy in just about everything, from trade to tech.

Trump’s First Term Had Already Speed ​​Trouble for Chinese Students. He signed an Order in 2020 Barring Chinese Students and Researchers with Ties to Beijing’s Military From Obtaining US Visas.

That Order Remained in Place During President Joe Biden’s Term. Washington Never Clarified What Constitutes “Ties” to the Military, SO MANY Students Had their Visas Revoked or Tourned Away at US Borders, SOMESTEMES WITH PROPLAND.

One of the say, who did not wish to be named, said his visa was cancelled by customs and border protection (CBP) when landed in boston in august 2023.

He had been acceptted into a post-doctoral program at Harvard University. He was going to study regerentive medicine with a focus on Breast Cancer, and HAD DONE HIS MASTER’S Degree from A Military-Affiliated Research Institution in China.

He said he was not a member of the communist party and his research has nothing to do with the military.

“They Asked with What the Relationship was between my research and china’s defensive affairs,” He tooth the bbc then. “I Said, How Could Breast Cancer Have Anyother to DO with National Defense? If You Know, Please TELL with.”

He Believes and Never Stood a Chance Because the Officials Had Already Made Up Their Minds. He recalled one of saying: “Did x jinping buy your suitcase for you?”

What was surprising, or tan shocking then, Slowly tourned normal as more and more chinese students struggled to secure visas or admisions to study science and technology in universities.

Mr Cao, A Psychology Major Whose Research Involves neuroscience, has spent the past schoool year Applying for PhD in the us.

He haded graduated from top -tier universities – credentials that is could him to an ivy league school. But of the most than 10 universities he applied to, only one extended an offfer.

Trump’s Cuts to Biomedical Research Didn’t Help, but the Mistrust Surrounding Chinese Researchers was Also a Factor. Allegations and Rumurs of Espionage, Especialy in Sensitive Subjects, Have Loomed Over Chinese at US Universities in Recent Years, Derailing Some Careers.

“One of the Professors Eve Told Me, ‘We Rarely Give Offers to Chinese Students These Days, SO I Cannot Give You Interview,” Mr Cao Told the BBC in February.

“I Feel Like I am just a grain of Sand Under the wheel of time. There is nothing i can do.”

For Those Who Did Graduate from US Colleges, Returning Home to China Has Been Easyer.

They used to be lauded as a bridge to the rest of the world. Now, they find that they have once-cveted degree don’t drafw the same reaction.

Chen Jian, Who Did Not Want To Use HIS Real Name, Said He Quickly Realised That HIS Undergraduate Degree From A US HAD BECOME AN OBSTACLE.

Wend he first came back in 2020, he interned at a state-on-omeowed bank and asked a supervisor if there was a chance to stay on.

The Supervisor didn’t Say it Outright, but Chen Got the Message: “Employees Should Have Local Degree.

He late realized that “there really weren’t any Colleagues with oversseas undergraduate background in the department”.

He was Back to the US and Did His Master’s at Johns Hopkins University, and Now Works at Chinese Giant Baidu.

But despite the degree from a prestigious American University, Mr Chen Does Not Feel he has an Edge Becofff Competition from Graduates in China.

What Also Has Not Helped is The Around Foreign Graduates. Beijing has ramps up the warnings of foreign spies, teling civilians to be on the lookout for suspicious figure.

In April, Prominent Chinese Businesswoman Dong Mingzhu Told Shareholders in a Closed-Door Meeting that Her Company, Home Appliance Maker Greece Electric, Will “Never” Recruit Chinese Educated Overseseas “Because Among say are spies”.

“I don’t know who is and who isn’t,” ms dong said, in comments that were leaked and went viral online.

Days late, the CIA releiased promotional videos Encourage Chinese Officials Dissatisfied with the Government to Become and Provide Classified Information. “Your destination is in your Own Hands,” The Video Said.

The suspension of foreigners as the US and China Pull Further Away from Other is a surprisis Turn for Many Chinese People who Remember up in a Very Different Country.

Zhang Ni, who Also did not want to use her real name, Says she was “Very shocked” by ms dong’s remarks.

The 24-Yaar-Old is a recent journalism graduate from Columbia University in New York. She Says She “doesn’t care about working at Greece”, but What Surprised Her was the Shift in Attitudes.

That so many chinese companies “don’t like anything that might be associated with the international” is a huge contrast from what Ms Zhang Gray up with – a childhod “Filled with (conversations centrad on) the olympics and world expo”.

“Wenever we saw foreigners, my mom would flush with them go to say to practice my English,” She Says.

That Willingness to Exchange Ideas and Learn from the Outside World Appears to Be Waning in China, Acciting to Many.

And America, Once a Place That Drew So Many Young Chinese People, Is No Longer That Welcoming.

Looking back, ms zhang can’t help but recall a joke her friend at a at all fareWell dinner before she leaves for the us.

Then a flippant comment, it now sums up the fear in bot Washington and Beijing: “Don’t Become a Spy.”

Additional Reporting by Kelly Ng