President Trump’s administration is trying to purge graduate students beholden to the Chinese Communist Party from acquiring sensitive research at American universities, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“We will not tolerate [China’s] attempts to illicitly acquire American technology and intellectual property from our academic institution and research facilities for Chinese military ends,” Pompeo said in the wake of Trump’s decision to revoke some student visas.
Pompeo’s announcement is expected to affect as many as 5,000 Chinese nationals in American graduate schools, as the U.S.-China rivalry intensifies and causes a deterioration of ties outside of traditional government channels. The Chinese Foreign Ministry accused the United States of engaging in “stark political persecution and racial discrimination,” but the policy reflects the Trump team’s belief that Chinese spy agencies use an army of “nontraditional collectors” to gather intelligence in American institutions.
“Our concern is with the malign actions of the Chinese Communist Party and specific individuals, not with the Chinese people,” Pompeo said. “The graduate students and researchers who are targeted, co-opted, and exploited by the [Chinese] government for its military gain represent a small subset of Chinese student and researcher visa applicants coming to the United States.”
That decision is part of a series of decisions that Trump took last week to punish what Washington regards as the “malign influence” of the Chinese Communist Party. The president announced that he was “terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization,” due to China’s influence with the global health agency and revoking Hong Kong’s special economic status with the U.S. due to Beijing’s decision to tighten control over the former British colony.
“If someone attempts to ‘decouple’ the two economies, wage a new Cold War on China, push China and the U.S. towards conflict and confrontation, and sow rivalry and hostility between the two peoples, their efforts will only end up in vain,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday. “We urge the U.S. to immediately stop using all sorts of excuses to wantonly restrict and oppress Chinese students and researchers in the U.S.”
Pompeo maintained that the decision would redound to the benefit of Chinese students in other areas of research that hold less interest for China’s military.
“We expect this new visa policy will contribute to an improved, open, and transparent environment in which U.S. and Chinese scholars can engage with greater trust,” he said. “At the same time, the United States will continue to do everything in its power to safeguard U.S. technology and institutions and to ensure our national and economic security remain safe and free from foreign interference.”
