China condemns US decision to revoke student visas

 

China has lodged a protest over the US declaration that it will “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese students studying at US universities

China’s ministry of foreign affairs told reporters on Thursday that it had formally objected to

Washington over Wednesday’s announcement by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state.

A spokesperson for the Chinese government, Mao Ning, accused the Trump administration of using national security and ideology as a pretext for the “unreasonable” decision, which “seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupted the normal cultural exchanges between the two countries”.

She added: “This political and discriminatory practice of the US has exposed the lies of the so-called freedom and openness that the US has always advertised, and further damaged the US’s own international image, national image and national credibility.”

Rubio’s announcement had specifically cited increased scrutiny for students from China and Hong Kong, one of the largest sources of revenue for US universities.

It came after China criticised his department’s decision a day earlier to suspend visa appointments for students worldwide, at least temporarily, and a week after Trump’s administration sought to end permission for all international students at Harvard University, which had rebuffed pressure from the president