International students discuss the culture shock of the American campus

Washington

Geopolitical tensions and growing competition in technology between the United States and China appear to be spilling over into academia, despite commitments by the world's two largest economies to boost people-to-people exchanges.

The United States remains the top choice for Chinese students looking to study abroad with nearly 300,000 studying at American colleges and universities during the 2022-2023 school year. But reports of some cases of students and professors facing extra scrutiny during immigration clearance and others being deported are raising concerns.

For Chen Xiaojin, a doctoral student studying semiconductor materials at a university in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, it's been six years since she returned to her hometown of Beijing.

At first, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented him from going home. But over the past two years, it has been hampered by accounts of Chinese science and engineering graduate students being asked to reapply for their visas upon returning to China.

She also says she is troubled by reports over the past six months of Chinese students being deported, even at nearby Dulles Airport.

“My current research is relatively sensitive, and my boss [adviser] is receiving funding from the US Department of Defense, making it even more sensitive, she told VOA. “I'm afraid I won't be able to come back after I come back [to China].”

Chen says that if he were to return to China, he would have to apply for a new visa.

In a report late last month, Bloomberg said it had found at least 20 Chinese students and researchers with valid visas who were deported to US Customs since November and barred from re-entry. The US Customs and Border Protection agency does not provide relevant data.

Immigration attorney Dan Berger represented a Chinese student who was deported late last year. He tells VOA Mandarin that the student studied biological sciences at Yale University and was about to complete her Ph.D.

She visited her family in China and obtained a new visa, but was deported by customs at Dulles airport and banned from re-entering the country for five years. Berger said he saw nothing suspicious in the transcript of the conversation between the student and the customs officer.

“We've seen what looks like a pattern over the last six months of Chinese PhD students going back. More than I've seen in a long time,” he said.

Matthew Brazil, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said neither country seems willing to explain the situation. However, he believes that in most cases, the United States should have valid reasons to block visa holders from entering the country.

In some cases, students' background may not match what is written on the visa application. In other cases, customs agents may also find something that the State Department has missed, and once they see it, they are responsible for taking action.

“I wish the Chinese side would be specific about their students who were denied entry, he said. The fact that both sides are mum on details and that the Chinese side is engaging in the usual rhetoric of outrage means that each there are security concerns. And that tells me there was a good reason for the US to detain these particular applicants.”

Brazil also sees a link between the entry denials and export control regulations issued by the United States in October 2022 that limit China's ability to obtain advanced computer chips, develop and maintain supercomputers and manufacture advanced semiconductors .

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is one of the law enforcement agencies authorized to investigate violations of export control regulations, he said.

“Beijing's intelligence agencies are known to focus attention on the PRC [People’s Republic of China] students and scientists headed abroad who study or work on dual-use technologies controlled under the Export Administration Act that compels Chinese students and scientists to report on what they have learned when they return to China on vacation, he said. This has been true for decades.”

Bill Drexel, a fellow for the Technology and Homeland Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said the US government found several cases where students tried to steal strategic technology for China.

“I think it wouldn't be surprising that they found some really suspicious or incriminating evidence for some students, he said. It also wouldn't be surprising if, in their search for really strong evidence, they might have also some mistakes in others.

Drexel adds that it's simply an unfortunate fact of the times we live in and the tactics the CCP uses when it comes to these measures.”

In a post on X in early May, US Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns sought to remove concerns about visas and entry into the United States for students and scholars. In the post, he said that “99.9% of Chinese students holding visas encounter no problems entering the United States.

In an interview with of Wall Street Journal On Monday, Burns said it is China that is making it impossible to promote people-to-people ties. Burns told him diary that students attending US-sponsored events in China have been interrogated and intimidated.

He also said that since US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held their summit in San Francisco last year, China's Ministry of State Security and other agencies had interfered with the participation of Chinese citizens in some 61 events. .

At a regular briefing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning dismissed the allegations, saying they did not reflect reality” and that it ran counter to key understandings reached by the presidents of the two countries in San Francisco.

The United States, under the pretext of 'national security', unjustifiably harasses, interrogates and deports Chinese students in the US, causing them considerable harm and creating a severe chilling effect, Mao said. The image of the United States in the minds of the Chinese people depends fundamentally on the actions of the United States itself.

Drexel said it believes Burns' comments about visas and students' willingness to study in the U.S. still ring true.

On balance, it's still the case that American universities are extremely warm to Chinese students and want them in large numbers,” he said.

Still, Berger, the immigration attorney, is concerned about the chilling effect recent cases involving Chinese students could have.

“In general, we are more cautious about advising Chinese graduate students in STEM fields about travel and letting them know that there is a small risk,” he said.

Although the risk is small, it appears to be real at the moment, he said.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.