Education ministry urges
Chinese citizens to undertake risk assessment before they try to get visas for
America
China is largest source of
international students in US, accounting for around 31 per cent of total
China issued an official
warning on Monday for Chinese students seeking to study in the United States,
amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
The Ministry of Education
urged students and academics to “raise their risk assessment” after an increase
in visa delays and denials for those who have applied to study in the US.
“For a period of time now,
some Chinese students in the US have faced situations where their visas were
restricted, the visa review period was extended, the period of validity was
shortened, or [their applications] were rejected,” it said in a statement,
relayed by the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
“The ministry wants to remind
[Chinese] students and scholars to raise their risk assessment, strengthen
their preventative awareness, and make the appropriate preparations.”
The warning comes as China and
the US have been locked in an intensifying trade war, with Beijing placing the
blame for the deteriorating relationship on Washington over the weekend.
Beyond raising tariffs on
billions of dollars’ worth of goods, the US has blacklisted Chinese telecoms
giant Huawei over national security concerns, with China saying it would launch
an “unreliable entity” list in apparent retaliation.
Meanwhile Chinese students in
fields such as robotics, aviation, engineering, and hi-tech manufacturing – all
key elements of the “Made in China 2025” policy – have faced additional
scrutiny when applying for visas to enter the US.
In June last year a US State
Department official told a Senate hearing that Chinese students in “sensitive
fields” could face additional screening.
Xu Yongji, deputy head of the
international department at China’s Ministry of Education, said on Monday that
13.5 per cent of government-sponsored Chinese students, 182 in total, had been
denied visas to the US in the first quarter of the year.
This reflected a significant
increase from the roughly 3 per cent of students, out of a total of 10,313
applicants, who were unable to study in the US last year, according to the
China Scholarship Council, which funds overseas students.
Xu also said that American
claims that Chinese students were carrying out “non-traditional espionage
activities” abroad and the cancellation of 10-year visas for some academics had
“hurt the dignity of Chinese students in the US”.
He said this had created a
chill in educational exchanges between the two countries that should be
“quickly remedied”.
Meanwhile, Geng Shuang a
spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, told a regular briefing that the US had
imposed “unnecessary restrictions” on people-to-people exchanges, including
students hoping to study abroad, which has sparked “opposition from the
education industries in both countries”.
China is the largest source of
international students in the US, accounting for around 31 per cent of the
total, according to the latest available figures from the US Department of
Homeland Security.
In March, there were 369,364
students from China in the United States.
While the US continues to be
the preferred destination for Chinese students, its appeal has waned slightly
in recent years.
A survey by China’s largest
private education provider, New Oriental Education & Technology Group,
found that 43 per cent of respondents ranked the US as their top choice in
2019, down from 49 per cent two years previously, followed by Britain,
Australia and Canada.
Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of
the state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times, tweeted earlier on Monday
that the Chinese government’s warning was a response to the “recent series of
discriminatory measures the US took against Chinese students and can also be
seen as a response to the US-initiated trade war”.
Han Yi, from Beijing-based
consultancy JLL Overseas Education, said he had seen cases where Chinese
students in the US had experienced extended delays in processing their visas
and seen the period of visa validity shortened.
But despite these difficulties
and the ministry’s warning, he did not expect the number of Chinese students
visiting America to decrease significantly.
“A small decrease is
possible,” Han, who graduated from a master’s programme at Ohio State
University, said.
“Historically this is not the
first time this type of thing has happened, so the impact may be limited. We
hope things will improve.”
Liu Weidong, a researcher at
the American studies institute at the China Academy of Social Sciences, said
the current US administration was seeking to decouple from China and targeting
students and academics was one way of achieving this.
“They believe Chinese students
studying in the US are taking advantage of the Americans, or even thieving or
spying,” he said. “But they forget the great contribution of Chinese students
in the past and in the future. Eventually they will face opposition from within
the US.”
Liu, who said some of his
colleagues at the academy had seen their US visas cancelled or been questioned
by the FBI, said that in the short term the restrictions could have some impact
on China’s research and development.
But he continued that this
will force China to “improve its own R&D, reduce its dependence on the US,
and look at increasing cooperation and exchanges with other developed countries”.
“I would suggest that instead
of any retaliatory actions, the Chinese side should be more open and inclusive
to welcome more international and American visitors to win the support of the
rest of the world,” he added.
The US embassy in Beijing did
not immediately comment on the Chinese government’s official warning.
Additional reporting by Jun
Mai and Liu Zhen
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