The United States will “aggressively” revoke visas of Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in sensitive fields, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
In a statement, Rubio also said, “We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
It is widely known that many children of high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party have studied at prominent U.S. universities. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s daughter reportedly graduated from Harvard University in 2014, although she studied there under a pseudonym.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning condemned the move as “politically motivated and discriminatory,” telling a press conference in Beijing on Thursday that China “firmly opposes” the plan and had lodged a protest with the U.S. side.
The U.S. decision “uses ideology and national security as pretext” and “seriously hurts the lawful rights and interests of international students from China,” Mao said. It “exposes the U.S. hypocrisy over freedom and openness” and “will further damage the image and reputation of the U.S. itself,” she added.
People walk on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in December 2024. (AP/Kyodo)
China was the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the United States in the 2023-2024 school year, following India, which became the leader for the first time since 2009, according to data from Open Doors, a program sponsored by the State Department.
There were 277,398 Chinese students in the United States in the year, making up a quarter of the total.
The release of Rubio’s brief statement came about two weeks after the United States and China took steps to ease trade tensions, which were initially sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of hefty tariffs on Chinese imports.
Last week, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. Noem’s letter also notified the university of the administration’s move to revoke its ability to enroll international students.
On Wednesday, Trump said Harvard should limit international enrollment to around 15 percent of admitted students each academic year.
Claiming some foreign students are “very radical” and “troublemakers,” Trump renewed his pressure on Harvard to provide the government with lists of foreign-born students and their countries of origin.
“I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 percent…We have people (who) want to go to Harvard and other schools, (but) they can’t get in because we have foreign students there,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country.”
“Many of those students were troublemakers caused by the radical left lunatics in this country,” he added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pictured in Washington on May 28, 2025. (Anadolu Agency/Getty/Kyodo)
Harvard enrolled 6,793 international students in the 2024-2025 school year, accounting for 27.2 percent of its total acceptance, according to the university.
Among Asian countries, there were about 260 Japanese students and scholars at Harvard, compared with some 2,100 from China, 790 from India, 430 from South Korea and 150 from Singapore, according to its data.
On Wednesday, Trump also asserted that it is the United States rather than other countries that invested in Harvard, questioning why top American educational institutions like the Massachusetts-based university need to accept a notable portion of foreign students.
Trump, who has frozen some federal funds to Harvard, reiterated that he wants to redirect public money to trade schools across the country to make them the best in the world and teach people skills such as building cars and working with artificial intelligence.
Trump’s remarks came as part of a broader push by his administration against Harvard, seeking changes to university policies such as those concerning admissions and hiring amid accusations that its academic environment harbors antisemitism while being too liberal.
His administration has been tightening screenings for international students, arguing that some applicants could threaten national security.
It has slammed Harvard and other high-profile U.S. universities for failing to prevent campus protests targeting Israel over alleged abuses against civilians during its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
For such reasons, the Trump administration paused the scheduling of foreign student visa interviews at all U.S. diplomatic missions on Tuesday, clouding the hopes of many who aspire to study in the United States.
Related coverage:
Japan calls on colleges to accept students in U.S. after Harvard ban
Univ. of Tokyo mulls accepting Harvard foreign students if barred
