New US bill proposes ban on Chinese students

A number of Republican House members proposed legislation on Friday, March 14, aimed at banning Chinese students from studying in American schools amid what they deem national security concerns.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Riley Moore and co-sponsored by five other Republicans. The bill, if passed, could restrict Chinese nationals from getting visas that permit foreigners to travel to the U.S. to study or partake in exchange visitor programs.

Moore said in a statement that the U.S. has “invited” the Chinese Communist Party “to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security” by granting Chinese nationals such visas.

“It’s time we turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas going to Chinese nationals,” he added.

The bill, however, is unlikely to pass, reports AP news. Organisations and scholars have been critical of the proposed measures, stating that extreme policies and narratives against Chinese students could affect US interests.

The executive director and CEO of NAFSA, Fanta Aw, an association of international educators, stated, “No policy should target individuals solely on the basis of their national origin.”

“Making international students — the most vetted and tracked nonimmigrants in the United States — a scapegoat for xenophobic and anti-Chinese sentiment is misguided and antithetical to our national interest,” Fanta Aw added.

The spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, also expressed “strong concern and firmly opposes such practices,” further highlighting that education exchange and cooperation have been a pillar for the stable development of China-U.S. relations for a long time.

The Asian American Scholars Forum pointed out that the bill would harm the brilliant Asian American scientists, scholars and researchers and compromise the US leadership in science and innovation.

Yangyang Cheng, a research scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, added that the bill “should be seen as part of a broader effort to restrict academic freedom and hurt higher education in this country, to control what can be taught, which research projects can be pursued, and who have access to the classrooms and laboratories.”

Citing an annual report on international students from the Institute of International Education, AP News reports that more than 277,000 Chinese students were enrolled in US universities in the 2023-24 academic year - a quarter of the total number of international students. However, the number of Chinese students in the US has been decreasing over the past few years. In 2024, Chinese students did not top in numbers as international students in India.

Back in 2023, Florida passed a law barring state universities from hiring students from China and six other countries for graduate assistant and postdoc positions. This move, however, was challenged in court. Additionally, a number of  US universities have terminated academic partnerships with Chinese schools as Republican lawmakers coerced them in the name of national security concerns.