State Department to Aggressively Revoke Visas for Chinese Students and Tighten Scrutiny of Applications From China and Hong Kong
On May 28, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a brief statement announcing that the U.S. State Department would aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, another major move by the administration affecting foreign students, and one directly concerning the large population of Chinese students in the United States.
The statement, titled "New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China," reads in full: "Under President Trump's leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong."
The statement did not define what counts as a "critical field," did not say what would constitute a connection to the Chinese Communist Party, and gave no scale or timetable for the revocations, leaving it unclear on the day of the announcement how many students the policy would ultimately reach.
According to the Institute of International Education's Open Doors report, more than 277,000 Chinese students, from high school through graduate school, were enrolled in the United States in the 2023-24 academic year, one of the largest international student populations in the country; contemporary U.S. media estimates put the total at about 280,000.
The announcement came a day after the State Department was reported to have paused the scheduling of new student visa interviews in an internal cable, as it prepared expanded social media screening of applicants, and days after the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard University's certification to enroll foreign students on May 22, an action a federal judge later temporarily blocked. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment that evening.
(Source: U.S. Department of State)
Source: U.S. Department of State
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿哥伦比亚特区的美国国务院总部 Harry S. Truman Building。Mike Peel 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Harry S. Truman Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. Photo by Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
