Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s administration would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students studying domestically.
The move comes as Washington and Beijing are trying to negotiate a trade deal to end the spiral tariff war between the two biggest economies of the world amid the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to crack down on international students attending US universities.
The US China Hawks have long been seeking greater surveillance of students in American university countries, some of which have secretly claimed to be Beijing spies, but Rubio’s announcement is the most dramatic step the US administration has made against students from certain countries.
Here’s how it can affect students, American universities, US-China relations, and the US itself:
What did Rubio announce?
In a post on X, Rubio wrote, “The United States will begin revoking visas for Chinese students, including those studying in China’s Communist Party and important fields.”
The US will begin revoking visas for Chinese students, including Chinese Communist Party ties and students studying in important fields.
– Secretary Marco Rubio (@secrubio) May 28, 2025
The US does not specify what counts as “significant areas.” However, in March, a House Congressional Committee requested leaders from Carnegie Mellon University, Purdue University, Stanford University, Stanford University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University, University of Maryland and University of Southern California to information about the Chinese citizens of Campe’s advanced science, technology, engineering and healthcare programs.
John Mourenard, chairman of the Congressional Committee, argued that China had embedded students in top-notch research programs to access sensitive technology.
“The Chinese Communist Party will establish a well-documented and systematic pipeline to embed researchers in major US institutions, providing direct exposure to delicate technologies in double use military applications,” Moolenaar said in the letter, adding that many Chinese students have migrated to the US or other Western countries and then completed their degrees.
“This pattern raises great concern about the extent to which the Chinese citizens ultimately transferred their knowledge to China after gaining highly advanced discipline expertise,” he said.
Rubio also did not identify what constituted a “connection” with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The party has around 100 million card-carrying members in a country with around 400 million families, so on average, one in four Chinese people have an immediate relative to the CCP.
The US State Department website also announced a press conference entitled “New visa policy that puts America first, not China.”
In this statement, Rubio added: “We will also amend visa standards to enhance scrutiny of all visa applications for the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kongers.”
The move comes the day after Rubio distributes a memo that says the US has ordered foreign embassies to suspend scheduling visa interviews with all foreign students, but the State Department plans to expand its social media review of applicants.
How did China respond?
Beijing condemned the Trump administration’s move and viewed it as “political and discriminatory.”
“The US has unfairly cancelled visas for Chinese students under the pretext of ideology and national rights,” Maoze, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thursday. “China is firmly opposed to this and is submitting a statement with the United States.”
Mao Zedong added that the US government’s moves “significantly damaged” the rights of Chinese students and undermined normal cultural exchanges between Washington and Beijing.
“This political and discriminatory practice in the United States revealed the so-called freedom and openness lies that the United States has always promoted,” Mao Zedong said.
A spokesperson added that the move “furtherly undermined the US’s own international, domestic image and national credibility.”
How many Chinese students are there in the US?
Between the 2023-2024 academic year, 277,398 Chinese students were enrolled at US universities, accounting for 24.5% of the 1.13 million international students.
Only students from India outperformed their Chinese counterparts. According to Open Doors, the 2024-2024 school year was the first time India has replaced China with its top position since 2009.
Which university has the largest student population in China?
In 2023, China was the country of origin of international students at Carnegie Mellon University, accounting for 46.8% of the international student population.
At New York University, Chinese students make up more than half of international student organizations – 51.6%.
China is the largest country of New York University international students, accounting for 51.6% of the international student population. In the 2023-2024 grade, the university had 14,072 Chinese students out of 27,247 foreign students.
According to a report from Duke University, the institute had 5,000 international students in 2024, with the top two countries of origin being China and India.
Half of Northwestern University’s international student population is from China, the institute’s website states. On Thursday, after Rubio’s announcement, graduate workers at Group Northwestern University signed an open letter to the university, urging the Congressional Committee to reject a request for information about Chinese students in March.
How much revenue will these students make to the US?
U.S. universities make billions of dollars from tuition fees paid by international students. However, these students also benefit the local economy.
During the 2023-2024 academic year, international students studying at US universities donated $43.8 billion to the US economy, supporting more than 378,000 jobs, according to data released by the Nonprofit NAFSA: International Educators Association.
A November 2024 NAFSA release stated that this economic activity is the highest amount ever calculated by the organization.
According to NAFSA data, there are 1.1 million international students in the United States, so on average, international students donate around $39,800 each year to the American economy.
That calculation would have meant that 277,398 Chinese students in the US in 2023-24 contributed more than $11 billion to the US economy that year.
How much have Chinese graduates contributed to the US?
Once they graduate, international students in the US will contribute disproportionately to American innovation. A 2022 analysis by the American Policy Foundation (NFAP) found that 55% of all US-based startups worth more than $1 billion were founded by immigrants.
Since 2000, more than 50,000 Chinese doctoral scholars in the field of science and mathematics have remained in the United States, pursuing a scientific research and founding startup worth $100 million in 2022.
According to NFAP, it includes a $21 billion company, also known as Unicorns.
One of these notable unicorns is Pony.ai, an autonomous driving technology company founded in 2016 and is currently rated by the Nasdaq Exchange for $6.4 billion. The company was launched by James Penn and Lu Tianchen, both attending Beijing-based Tinshua University for its bachelor’s degree. Co-founder Peng holds a PhD from Stanford University.
According to NFAP, another company is an online Asian grocery retailer Weee! and worth $4.1 billion, he came to the United States to earn his undergraduate degree in China, then a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California, Davis.
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