Over 1,000 Visas For Chinese Nationals Cancelled: US

The United States has revoked visas for more than 1,000 Chinese nationals under a May 29 presidential proclamation to suspend entry from China of students and researchers deemed security risks, a State Department spokeswoman said overnight on Wednesday.

The acting head of the US Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, said earlier that Washington was blocking visas "for certain Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to China's military fusion strategy to prevent them from stealing and otherwise appropriating sensitive research".

A State Department spokeswoman said the visa action was being taken under a proclamation President Donald Trump announced on May 29 in which he had said some Chinese nationals officially in the United States for study have stolen intellectual property and helped modernise China's military.

"As of September 8, 2020, the Department has revoked more than 1,000 visas of PRC nationals who were found to be subject to Presidential Proclamation 10043 and therefore ineligible for a visa," the spokeswoman said.

She said the ineligible "high-risk graduate students and research scholars" represented "a small subset" of the Chinese coming to the United States to study and research and that legitimate students and scholars would continue to be welcomed.

Earlier, some Chinese students enrolled in US universities said they received emailed notices on Wednesday from the US Embassy in Beijing or US consulates in China informing them their visas had been canceled.

Over 60 students holding F-1 visas including postgraduates and undergraduates said in a WeChat chatroom that the notices stated they would have to apply for new visas if they wanted to travel to the United States.

A final year undergraduate student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was shocked to have received the notice.

The only reason he could think of would be his previous experience at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), a Chinese university known for its defence and security technology research.

"I studied at BUPT before year two, but I have no connections with that university since," he said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Nearly 370,000 students from China were enrolled at US universities in 2018-19, the most of any country, offering a lucrative source of income to institutions that are now facing growing pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.

Some Asian American activists have warned that Trump's orders are creating a climate of suspicion on campuses, with students of Asian descent facing unfounded questions about their intentions.

But US officials say the number of espionage cases involving China has soared in recent years as part of a concerted effort by Beijing. (Reuters, AFP)