US to revoke Chinese student visas; Trump wants Harvard to cap foreign intake at 15%

Washington: The United States will begin “aggressively” revoking visas of Chinese students — particularly those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in sensitive fields — Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday. The move, part of the Trump administration’s wider push to tighten immigration and counter Chinese influence, could disrupt a vital source of income for US universities and a crucial pipeline of tech talent.

Rubio also said the State Department will revise visa criteria to increase scrutiny for all future applicants from China and Hong Kong. “The US State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students,” he said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has been pushing to limit student visas and deport more foreign nationals as part of its hardline immigration agenda. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the State Department had paused new appointments for all foreign student and exchange visitor visa applicants.

The administration last week revoked Harvard University's authority to enrol foreign students, citing its alleged ties to China — a decision that has since been temporarily blocked by a US judge.

Trump on Wednesday doubled down on his criticism of Harvard, suggesting the elite Ivy League school should cap its foreign student intake at 15%. “Harvard has got to behave themselves. Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that the university should present the administration with its list of foreign enrollees.

International students — with China and India accounting for 54% — contributed over $50 billion to the US economy in 2023, according to the Department of Commerce. However, the number of Chinese students in the US has declined in recent years, dropping from a peak of 370,000 in 2019 to around 277,000 in 2024, amid tightening visa rules, rising geopolitical tensions and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many Chinese students, often from affluent families, have historically turned to US universities for their global reputation and research excellence. A significant number remain in the US after graduation, bolstering the American workforce and contributing to scientific research.

But as the US-China rivalry hardens into what some analysts call a new cold war, Washington has become increasingly wary of China's alleged exploitation of the US’s open academic environment — particularly in areas involving sensitive technology and intellectual property.

During Trump’s previous term, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led efforts to shut down Confucius Institutes — Chinese government-funded cultural centres — at US universities, alleging they served Beijing’s propaganda and espionage goals.

Yaqiu Wang, a human rights researcher who came to the US as a Chinese student, acknowledged past abuses but criticised the latest crackdown as overly broad. “Blanket bans would jeopardise the rights and livelihoods of Chinese students and undermine America's role as a global leader in innovation,” she said.

China’s foreign ministry has vowed to “firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests” of its students abroad. The Chinese Embassy in Washington has yet to comment on Rubio’s announcement.