Trump’s Chinese Student Visa Policy Is An Un-American Risk

President Trump and his administration are facing blowback for their plan to allow hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals to continue studying at U.S. universities — and rightly so.

Throughout the past several days, America’s commander-in-chief has doubled down on his ill-advised infatuation with granting these individuals access to the United States’ premier academic institutions.

After first claiming on Monday that it’s “very important” to allow 600,000 Chinese students to attend American colleges — more than double the estimated number admitted annually — Trump reaffirmed his support for such a policy during a Tuesday cabinet meeting. Speaking to reporters, the president contended that “it’s very insulting to say [China’s] students can’t come here.”

“Because they’ll go out and start building schools … but I like that [China’s] students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here,” Trump said. “And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell, very quickly. … And it wouldn’t be the top colleges; it would be colleges that struggle on the bottom. … And I told this to President Xi: That we’re honored to have their students here.”

“Now with that, we check, and we’re careful, and we see who’s there … But we have a tremendous college system, the best in the world. Nobody even close — that’s why China sends them here. You can call it an industry if you want … I’m honored to have the students from China come here,” he added.

According to Townhall’s Katie Pavlich, a White House official has since claimed that “President Trump isn’t proposing an increase in student visas for Chinese students,” but that “[t]he 600k references two years worth of visas.”

“It’s simply a continuation of existing policy,” the official reportedly said.

But the reality is that it doesn’t matter if the actual figure is 300,000 or 600,000 students. The correct number of Chinese nationals who should be allowed to study at American universities is zero.

There are multiple problems with Trump’s arguments in defense of continuing this terrible policy, with the first being that it’s plainly un-American.

There is nothing “America First” about having foreign nationals displace American students at top American colleges in order to prop up failing universities. And that’s especially true for those operating as anti-American “reeducation” centers and whose very existence — according to Trump — hinges on qualified American students being boxed out of their country’s top-tier schools by Chinese ones.

More to the point, however, the practice of admitting hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals into American universities has been shown to pose significant risks to U.S. national security — risks the Trump administration itself underscored less than three months ago.

In late May, the State Department touted the now-seemingly abandoned bid to “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said the administration would be reviewing existing “visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.” When asked in follow-up press briefing about Rubio’s efforts, then-agency spokeswoman Tammy Bruce highlighted numerous security concerns.

The Trump administration “will not tolerate the CCP’s exploitation of U.S. universities or theft of U.S. research, intellectual property, or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection, or repress voices of opposition,” Bruce said.

Such issues have shown up multiple times in charges filed against Chinese nationals admitted into the U.S. on student visas. As recently as May, U.S. immigration officials deported a Chinese national — who was admitted to the University of Minnesota as a graduate student — after he was convicted of using a drone to take pictures of “military installations” in Virginia.

This isn’t to suggest that every Chinese student studying at America’s colleges is a willing accomplice of the CCP. Given China’s existing national security laws, however, Americans are right to be concerned.

As The Federalist previously reported, these CCP-approved laws require all Chinese citizens and entities to “support, assist, and cooperate” with so-called “national intelligence efforts” and give the government the power to demand “relevant organs, organizations, and citizens provide necessary support, assistance, and cooperation.” Put another way, the CCP possesses the power to syphon information from and/or coerce Chinese students studying abroad to further its national objectives whether these students like it or not.

As president, Trump has an obligation to put Americans first. Wavering on this critically important issue will continue to take away academic opportunities for American students and empower the United States’ greatest geopolitical adversary in its quest for global dominance.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood