Donald Trump built his campaign, and his reelection, on the idea of "America first." But gradually, what he is implementing are policies aimed at making it only America, and no one else. After dismissing international researchers and specialists from all branches of the administration, withdrawing visas, and halting the expulsion of students from around the world for protesting against the Gaza War, and starting a full clash against Harvard University, the Government announced today that it will "aggressively revoke" visas for Chinese students in the country.
In a brief statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that "visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in key fields," will be revoked.
The text, titled "New visa policies put the US first, not China," which comes on the same day Rubio announced that he would pursue international officials and technicians for "pursuing the freedom of expression of Americans," a way to hide a policy of pressure and threats to those responsible, for example, for implementing digital services laws in the EU, the State Department also explains that it will review "visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong."
The administration wants to control universities. It has cut billions of dollars in funding and federal contracts from dozens of them to comply with its demands, and in the case of Harvard, which has resisted, it is trying to subdue it. First by cutting off public funding, then by revoking the visas of all its international students, something that has been temporarily halted by a judge.
Today, President Trump considered that the university had too many foreign students, who make up about 25% of the total, and told them to reduce the number to 15%. And now he is directly targeting China, invoking the same national security reasons used to revoke visas and expel pro-Palestinian sympathizers.
This is not the first time Trump has attempted something like this. In 2020, his team tried to cancel the visas of thousands of Chinese graduate students and researchers, arguing that they had direct ties to military universities in China.
The children of the elite in the Asian country have studied for decades at top American universities. Xi Jinping's daughter, the president, attended Harvard. Bo Guagua, the son of a prominent former Politburo member, now imprisoned in China, followed in his footsteps and also attended Columbia, as recalled by The New York Times.