Students carry on

Xiao Chen appeared at the US Consulate in Shanghai on Thursday morning, a few hours after Washington announced that it would be “aggressive” withdraw the visas of Chinese students.

The 22-year-old girl had a visa: she went to Michigan in the fall to study communications.

After a “pleasant” conversation, she was told that her statement was rejected. She wasn’t a reason.

“I feel like a drifting duck thrown by wind and thunderstorms,” ​​she said, using a common Chinese expression used to describe the feelings of uncertain and helpless.

She hoped she had already had a letter of acceptance. And she thought that in recent days the bomb escaped.

For the first time, the Donald Trump administration has gone to the end The ability of Harvard University to record international studentsA step that has since been blocked in court. And then said it was stop Visa meetings for all international students.

But now Chen is ready for B.’s plan “If I will not be able to get a visa, I will probably break the year. Then I’ll wait to find out if everything is next year.”

An additional visa may be insufficient, it adds because students with visas can be “stopped at the airport and deport”.

“It’s bad for every Chinese student. The only difference is how bad.”

It was a gloomy week for foreign students in the US – and perhaps even more difficult for 280,000 students who would notice that their country was allocated.

Internal Security Minister Christie Noah accused Harvard of “coordination with the Communist Party of China”.

Secretary of State Mark Rubio said the move against Chinese students in the US would include “those who have connected with the Chinese Communist Party or study in critical fields.”

This can be widespread, taking into account the membership of the Communist Party, common among officials, entrepreneurs, business people and even artists and celebrities in China.

Beijing called it a “politically motivated and discriminatory action”, and his Ministry of Foreign Affairs pursued an official protest.

There was a time when China sent the highest number of international students to US campuses. But these figures slipped when the relations between both countries.

More powerful and more persistent Beijing is now facing Washington for the rule of virtually everything from trade to technology.

Trump’s first term has already prescribed problems for Chinese students. He signed an order in 2020, banning Chinese students and researchers with Beijing’s ties to receive visas.

Such an order remained on the spot during President Joe Biden’s term. Washington never specified what is “connection” with the military, so many students had their own Visas were recalled Either were turned off in the US, sometimes without proper explanation.

One of them, who did not want him to be called, stated that his visa was abolished by customs and border protection (CBP) when he landed in Boston in August 2023.

It was admitted to doctoral studies at Harvard University. He was going to study regenerative medicine with a focus on breast cancer, and received a master’s degree in a military research institution in China.

He said he was not a member of the Communist Party, and his research had nothing to do with the military.

“They asked me what a relationship between my research and China’s defense affairs,” he said at the BBC then. “I said how breast cancer can have something in common with national protection? If you know, please tell me.”

He believes he has never been a chance because the officials have already decided. He reminded that one of them asked, “Did you buy XI Jinping for you?”

What was strange, or even shockingly, slowly became normal, as more and more Chinese students fought for visa or admission to study science and technology at American universities.

Mr. Cao, a psychology specialist whose research includes neurologies, conducted a past academic year, applying for doctoral programs in the US.

He graduated from higher level universities – powers that could send him to the ivy league school. But with more than 10 universities he addressed, only one extended proposal.

Trump’s reduction to biomedical research did not help, but the distrust that surrounded Chinese researchers was also a factor. Allegations and rumors about espionage, especially in sensitive subjects, have been outlined in recent years by Chinese citizens at the US universities, even breaking some careers.

“One of the teachers even told me,” we rarely offer Chinese students these days, so I can’t give you an interview, “Mr. Cao said in BBC in February.

“I feel like I’m just a grain of sand at the wheel. I can’t do anything.”

For those who graduated from American colleges, returning home to China was also not easy.

They used to worry as a bridge to the rest of the world. Now they find that their once -obtained degrees do not cause the same reaction.

Chen Jian, who did not want to use his real name, said he quickly realized that his bachelor’s degree at the American College was an obstacle.

When he first returned in 2020, he interpreted at the State Bank and asked the head if there was an opportunity to stay.

The ruler did not say it immediately, but Chen received a message: “Employees must have local degrees. People like me (with abroad) will not even get an answer.”

He later realized that “there were actually no colleagues with a foreign student.”

He returned to the US and made his master at John Hopkins University, and now works at the Chinese technological giant Baida.

But despite the degree of prestigious American University, Mr. Chen does not feel that he has an advantage of fierce competition from graduates in China.

What did not help is also suspicion around foreign graduates. Beijing has gained warnings about foreign spies, saying that the civilians would look for suspicious figures.

In April, the outstanding Chinese businessman Dong Minchzh told the shareholders at a meeting with the closed door that her company, manufacturer of the Gree Electric home device, “never” recruits Chinese studying abroad, “because they are spies.”

“I do not know who is, but who is not,” Ms. Dong said in the comments that traced and went online.

A few days later, the CIA posted advertising videos that called on Chinese officials dissatisfied with the government to become spies and provide secret information. “Your fate is in your hands,” the video reads.

The suspicion of foreigners like the US and China are distracted from each other is a strange turn for many Chinese who remember how to stand in a completely different country.

Zhang none, who also did not want to use her real name, says she was “very shocked” by Ms. Dong.

A 24-year-old non-journalism boy at the Colombian University in New York. She says she “does not care work in Gry”, but what surprised her was a shift in views.

The fact that so many Chinese companies “” “Does not like anything that can be related to international,” is a huge contrast from what Mrs. Zhang – childhood “, filled (talking on) the Olympics and the world exhibition.”

“Every time we saw foreigners, my mom would push me to talk to them to practice my English,” she says.

According to many, readiness to exchange ideas and learns from the outside world decreases in China.

And America, once a place that attracted so many young Chinese is no longer so welcoming.

Looking back, Mrs. Zhang can’t help but remember her friend, made at a farewell dinner before leaving for the US.

Then a non -written commentary, it sums up the results of fear both in Washington and in Beijing: “Do not become a spy.”

Additional Kelly NG reporting