By Talia Mullin / Original to ScheerPost

On March 14, Republicans in the US House of Representative proposed a bill that would prevent Chinese nationals from being able to obtain student visas. The Committee of 100, a group of notable Chinese-Americans, released a statement condemning the bill, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The committee was founded in 1998 and its founding members include famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma, philanthropist Oscar Tang, veteran investment banker Henry Tang and architect I.M. Pei. The group was founded in order “to address the critical issues impacting the Chinese community in America and help foster positive relations between the U.S. and Greater China.”

Current non-partisan chairman of the committee and former US ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014, Gary Locke, said that “Shutting the door on Chinese students doesn’t just betray our values, it weakens our leadership in science, technology, and innovation,” and that the US “has always thrived by welcoming the brightest minds from around the world.”

Locke continued, “The Stop CCP Visas Act is not just exclusionary but self-defeating. We must stand for opportunity, not fear, and ensure that talent and progress continue to flourish in our nation.”

The bill — officially dubbed the “Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act” — was originally sponsored by Republican House member Riley Moore of West Virginia and would block Chinese citizens from getting any one of the three main types of student visas. Chinese nationals would not be allowed to enter the US on vocational visas, academic student category visas nor as exchange visitors.

“Every year we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the US on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security,” Moore said in defense of the bill. 

He mentioned a specific case at the University of Michigan where 5 Chinese students were “charged with misleading authorities about their activities near a remote military site.” 

The case and pressure from lawmakers resulted in U-M terminating their longstanding partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Though the newly proposed act is one of the broadest and most candid acts of aggression by the U.S. towards Chinese nationals, it is not the first. Prior legislation against the Chinese came in the form of staunch limitations on travel and immigration or has targeted more specific groups such as graduate students in certain STEM fields. 

Near the end of his first term, Trump made a presidential proclamation which canceled 1,000 visas “for certain Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to China’s military fusion strategy to prevent them from stealing and otherwise appropriating sensitive research.” The Biden administration did nothing to reverse the policy.

Chinese students who used to make up the largest foreign group in the U.S. have seen steady decreases in their numbers since 2019 and 2020, demonstrating how the geopolitical rivalry and deteriorating ties between the two countries has had direct effects on Chinese students studying in the US. 

Asian-American groups, such as the Committee of 100, also warn that these sorts of actions can stoke anti-Asian sentiments throughout the U.S. population.

The Committee of 100 wrote in their statement:

“Suggesting that every Chinese student – regardless of background, intentions, or beliefs – is a national security threat is not only inaccurate but also fuels xenophobia, discrimination, and hostility towards an entire group of people – including Chinese-Americans here in the US… …Chinese and Chinese-American students have long contributed to America’s scientific, technological, and economic progress, and such rhetoric undermines their ability to learn, collaborate, and thrive in an environment free from suspicion and prejudice.”

The committee’s concerns were corroborated by a survey they conducted in September which found that most Chinese-Americans saw the worsening relationship between the US and China had fuelled discrimination and hateful rhetoric. Lastly, the majority of respondents to the survey also agreed that the United States government was not doing enough to combat rising discrimination.

Please share this story and help us grow our network!

Talia Mullin

Talia Mullin a student at the University of Southern California studying Communication, Spanish, and International Relations. She is a staff writer for Scheer Post.

You can also make a donation to our PayPal or subscribe to our Patreon.

ScheerPost.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. CC-BY-NC-ND only applies to ORIGINAL ScheerPost content.