US President Donald Trump addressed concerns on Friday regarding the administration’s intensified scrutiny of Chinese international students studying in the United States. Despite the crackdown, Trump assured reporters, “They’re going to be ok. It’s going to work out fine.”
This statement comes after the Trump administration announced plans this week to specifically target visa permissions for Chinese students, marking a significant escalation in its broader campaign against US higher education institutions. Trump elaborated, “We just want to check out the individual students we have. And that’s true with all colleges.”
The softer tone follows a recent legal development where a judge extended a temporary injunction preventing Trump’s administration from blocking Harvard University from enrolling international students. Harvard has resisted government demands to provide lists of students under scrutiny, a move Trump criticized on Friday: “I don’t know why Harvard’s not giving us the list. There’s something going on because Harvard is not giving us a list.”
“They ought to give us a list and get themselves out of trouble,” Trump insisted, suggesting the university may be withholding names of students “that supposedly are quite bad.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed on Wednesday to “aggressively” revoke visas of Chinese students, especially those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. Rubio’s department has already revoked thousands of visas, including for students involved in activism critical of Israel’s Gaza offensive or for minor infractions.
At recent graduation ceremonies, Harvard’s president Alan Garber received a standing ovation after calling on universities to stand firm against the administration’s policies. Trump emphasized his vision for international students: “We want people that can love our country and take care of our country and cherish our country.”
International students constitute just under six percent of the US university population, significantly less than in countries like the UK, where they make up 25 percent. Chinese students remain the second-largest group of international students in the US after India, with over 270,000 enrolled in 2023-24.
