- Feng Zhaoyin
- BBC Chinese reporter in the U.S. from Washington
Image source,AFP via Getty Images
The state media “China Daily” recently reported that more than 500 Chinese science and engineering graduate students were denied visas when they applied for U.S. visas. The Chinese side has lodged solemn representations with the US side. In response to the BBC’s request for comment on Wednesday (7th), a spokesperson for the US State Department stated that the relevant visa restrictions are “highly targeted” and only affect a very small number of people.
“China Daily” report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that more than 500 visa applicants affected were all Chinese students studying in the United States for doctoral or master’s degrees. Most of them studied electrical and electronic engineering, computers, machinery, chemistry, materials science, biomedicine and other science and engineering. Class professional. The schools they plan to attend include Harvard University, Yale University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among the top universities in the United States.
The report did not specify the time when the visa application was rejected, but it implied that it happened during Biden’s administration.
How did the United States and China express their stance?
“China Daily” quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the newly appointed Biden administration “says one thing and does another” and continues the Trump administration’s erroneous policy of suppressing Chinese science and engineering students.
According to reports, the U.S. embassy and consulate refused the visa on the grounds of not complying with the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act and Presidential Decree No. 10043.
After the Chinese official media released the above exclusive news, the relevant entries were posted on Weibo and Baidu hot searches, and the Chinese government quickly responded.
The Chinese side claims that these visa restrictions continue the “legacy” of the Trump administration and are inconsistent with the US statement of “welcoming Chinese students.” At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, Spokesperson Zhao Li insisted that China had lodged solemn representations with the United States.
Another spokesperson, Hua Chunying, questioned the incident on Twitter: “Is this what the United States calls freedom and openness?”
In response to the BBC’s request for comment via email on Wednesday (7th), a State Department spokesperson stated that Presidential Decree No. 10043 is “highly targeted” and only affects less than 2% of Chinese applicants for F and J visas. F and J visas are student and visiting scholar visas respectively.
The spokesperson said that the United States welcomes international students, including Chinese scholars and scholars. The Biden administration restarted the student visa service that has been suspended for more than a year due to the epidemic in May this year, “clearly showing the importance this administration attaches to opening up to international students. “
In the 2020 to 2021 academic year, about 370,000 Chinese students are studying in American schools, which is the largest source of international students in the United States, of which about 42% are studying science and engineering.
Image source,XINHUA
Graduates holding the Chinese flag at the graduation ceremony of Columbia University in the United States.
What is Presidential Decree No. 10043?
Presidential Decree No. 10043 was signed by former U.S. President Trump, prohibiting Chinese students and researchers related to China’s “military-civilian integration strategy” from entering the United States. It mainly affects those who hold F or J visas for further studies in the United States.
The executive order came into effect in June last year, and US officials stated in September that year that the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese citizens had been cancelled.
Washington has repeatedly criticized that China has used its military-civilian integration strategy to steal American sensitive technological and economic intelligence, and that Chinese nationals have used their studies and research in the name of espionage, which poses a threat to the national security of the United States.
After the Biden administration took office, most of the China policy of the Trump era was retained, and this presidential decree against Chinese scholars and students has not been revoked.
Who is affected?
Image source,Getty Images
Since the aforementioned presidential decree took effect, many of the affected Chinese students graduated from specific universities, such as the “Seven National Defense” universities directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China. Many science and engineering students who received funding from the China Scholarship Council also reported that their visas were denied or cancelled.
But there are also some applicants whose visas have been denied graduated from other colleges and universities. The majors affected include liberal arts and business.
Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the US embassy in China suspended most visa services in February last year and did not resume visa interviews until early May this year. But some Chinese students who expected the Biden government to remove visa restrictions ended in disappointment.
A Chinese student who applied for an American art school interviewed by the Chinese media Caijing pointed out that “I can’t even dream of it” that she could not get a visa.
This student was refused a visa in mid-May this year. Both her undergraduate and master degrees majored in language and literature. She told Caijing: “Don’t say I don’t believe it. The school visa staff I applied for didn’t believe it. I said,’We are an art academy, you can rest assured that it will not be affected, and the situation has greatly improved after President Biden took office.'”
Some of the affected Chinese students stated that they intend to initiate a class action lawsuit and have initially selected a lawyer to represent them in an effort to resist “unfair” behavior.
They formed a website against Presidential Decree No. 10043, which read: “Presidential Decree No. 10043 has harmed too many innocent Chinese students and is of no benefit to the United States. This visa restricts many talented students outside the United States. Students and scholars are increasingly worried about working in the United States because they fear that stricter measures may be implemented in the future.”
Last year, Sino-US relations fell to the bottom of history. Out of worries about technology transfer and counterintelligence collection, the United States stepped up its scrutiny of Chinese science and engineering scholars. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican against the Chinese hawks, even suggested that the United States should completely ban Chinese students from studying science and engineering.
These fierce remarks worry many Chinese students in the United States, and Washington will treat them as a political target.
Since the Biden administration came to power, it has revoked a number of presidential orders involving foreign talents during the Trump era, including the executive order restricting the employment of immigrants to “buy Americans and hire Americans,” and no longer extend the H-1B visa entry ban. But Presidential Decree No. 10043 continues to be effective.
Evan Burke, an assistant researcher at the Carnegie Foundation, an American think tank, wrote an article earlier in the online magazine “ChinaFile” suggesting that Biden should withdraw Presidential Decree No. 10043 in order to be more specific and specific to individual cases. Ways to review the background of Chinese graduate students. “If there is no reform, the influx of Chinese talents will never return to the level before the epidemic, and the development of science and technology in the United States will be harmed as a result.”
At the same time, some foreigners who study China pointed out that the Chinese authorities have imposed restrictions on their visas in recent years. Recently, Peter Hessler, a well-known American writer who teaches at Sichuan University, also announced that he could not renew his visa and would leave China soon.
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, China has banned most foreigners from entering the country in the past 16 months, resulting in thousands of foreign students studying in Chinese universities unable to return to school. “The Wall Street Journal” recently reported that in order to ensure the smooth holding of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China’s entry ban may not be lifted until the second half of next year.