Via Politico: Marco Rubio: US to ‘aggressively’ revoke visas of Chinese students.
About 277,000 Chinese students studied in the U.S. last year, making them the second largest group of foreign students in the U.S., after people from India.
Even if just a threat, Rubio’s announcement is likely to decisively end the popularity of U.S. universities and colleges for Chinese students.
“The chilling effect on Chinese students choosing the United States as their preferred place to go for study will be enormous,” said Rosie Levine, executive director of the US-China Education Trust, a nonprofit education group. “There are some 99 million Communist Party members in China, so depending on how they enforce this, it could catch up probably every Chinese student interested in coming to the United States who could have some Communist Party connection within their background.”
It would also hurt U.S. institutions, which have come to rely on foreign students to help offset the cost of providing financial aid to Americans. And it comes as President Donald Trump exerts pressure on colleges and universities to address allegations of antisemitism by threatening to withhold federal funding and grants.
If the goal here is to harm China, it is just pointlessly stupid. The Chinese government will simply help direct students to Australia, Canada, the UK, and elsewhere. The damage will be, as I keep noting, to colleges and universities up and down the elite to non-elite scale, with substantial collateral damage to the communities where those schools exist.
Indeed, these moves will almost certainly harm non-elite, regional public schools far, far more than places that have more applicants than they have seats.
To be clear: elite schools like the Ivies or public flagships have far more applicants than they have room for each year. But Regional Direction U has more space than they have qualified applicants. There is no making up for the loss of revenue at those schools, which will in turn put pressure on legislatures, or simply lead to schools closing programs and laying off staff.
These moves are also part of an ongoing destruction of American soft power in a way that is truly staggering in its stupidity. The own-goalness of it all is just off the scale.
Within the own goal of it all, is this:
An exodus of Chinese students may also deprive the U.S. of skills and expertise that are valuable to the economy, especially in the tech sector.
“If you go around Silicon Valley, you see thousands of Chinese students or former Chinese students who are making enormous contributions to the United States, to our entrepreneurship,” said Stephen Orlins, president of the nonprofit National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. “Revoking their visas will cut off the pipeline and create long term damage to the United States.”
I will note that there have been real espionage concerns with Chinese students, but even that does not warrant these policy moves.
Even those who say the U.S. has legitimate security concerns say a broad revocation of visas may be unproductive.
“The U.S. government needs to take into account risks of non-traditional espionage, but the way they’re drawing these boundaries is too broad and too undefined,” said Mary Gallagher, dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame University and an expert on Chinese politics. “ All universities in China are in some ways affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, so it seems to me overreach and damaging to not just U.S.- China educational exchange, but also to U.S. science and technological competitiveness.”
It is as if electing an admininstration that is both xenophobic and prone to crude and simplistic policy moves was a bad idea.
But the GOP has become the party of xenophobia.
Republicans were quick to offer support of the administration’s threat to revoke visas.
“America First. The U.S. is no longer in the business of importing espionage,” Florida Sen. Ashley Moody wrote on X. “This is great leadership by @SecRubio and @POTUS.”
“America first,” echoed Indiana Sen. Jim Banks.
“What did you think America First meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?” wrote West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore.
Again, America loses influence because of these moves; America loses revenue because of these moves; and America loses tech workers because of these moves.
But, hey, it hurts foreigners, so it must be good!
For no reason at all, here’s a cartoon by Theodore Geisel to cheer you up!
