The United States has revoked more than 1,000 visas of Chinese nationals over military links, a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“We continue to welcome legitimate students and scholars from China who do not further the Chinese Communist Party’s goals of military dominance,” a department spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a statement.
“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. We do not discuss individual cases that are subject to these restrictions. Visa records are confidential under U.S. law.”
“Today, I will issue a proclamation to better secure our nation’s vital university research and to suspend the entry of certain foreign nationals from China who we have identified as potential security risks.”
In particular, the proclamation directs the State Department to consider revoking visas for Chinese nationals “pursuant to an F or J visa to study or conduct research in the United States.”
Trump stated in the proclamation that the entry of such nationals “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” The president also said that Beijing is “engaged in a wide‑ranging and heavily resourced campaign to acquire sensitive United States technologies and intellectual property,” which presents a threat to the U.S. economy and national security.
“The PRC authorities use some Chinese students, mostly post‑graduate students and post-doctorate researchers, to operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property. Thus, students or researchers from the PRC studying or researching beyond the undergraduate level who are or have been associated with the PLA are at high risk of being exploited or co-opted by the PRC authorities and provide particular cause for concern,” Trump wrote.
‘Small Subset’ of Chinese Students
The State Department spokesperson noted that those whose visas have been revoked due to the proclamation represent a “small subset” of the total number of Chinese students and researchers coming into the United States.There are approximately 370,000 Chinese students studying in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the nonprofit Institute of International Education and the U.S. State Department.
U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo previewed last month that Trump was evaluating measures over the next few weeks to prevent intellectual property theft by Chinese nationals and students.
Pompeo said that at the same time as recognizing not every Chinese student in America is spying for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Trump administration is "taking this threat from the Chinese Communist Party seriously.”
He added that the administration is acutely aware of the pressure that Chinese students are subject, being under CCP surveillance while on American soil.
“As of 2017, China reportedly has recruited 7,000 researchers who focus on or have access to cutting-edge research and technology. For the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], international scientific collaboration is not about advancing science, it is about advancing the PRC national security interests,” he wrote.
Roughly 80 percent of all economic espionage prosecutions brought by the DOJ allege criminal conduct intended to benefit the CCP. China is involved in some way in about 60 percent of all trade secret theft cases, according to the DOJ.
FBI director Christopher Wray said the bureau opens a new counterintelligence investigation involving China every 10 hours. The bureau has more than 2,000 active China-related investigations as part of the China Initiative.
