In breaking news from the USA, the administration says it will start revoking visas for Chinese students.
As reported by Reuters a short time ago, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday the United States will start “aggressively” revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.
If applied to a broad segment of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese university students in the United States, the move could disrupt a major source of income for American schools and a crucial pipeline of talent for U.S. technology companies.
A press statement issued by the US Department of State, states New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China.
The statement simply reads: Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.
The Koala spoke with Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association of Australia who is currently in San Diego attending the annual NAFSA conference. He told The Koala, “Over here in the USA the universities are reeling from daily attacks by their own Administration on their global market share of international students. The United States has for many years been the number one study destination country in the world. It has even hosted President Xi Jinping’s daughter’s higher education. Given that most Chinese families who can afford to send their child to American universities are comparatively wealthy, a large percentage of affected students at American universities will definitely have links to the ruling party.
Whether it be yesterday’s announcement of checking the social media posts of all students intending to study in the USA and now the targeting of young people from one student source country this is becoming a very serious human rights issue from the supposed ‘leader of the free world’. Ironically, Australia will again miss an opportunity to gain greater market share because of our own overall enrolment restrictions. But at least our Government will not succumb to punishing young people because of who their parents support politically!”
Watch this space.
