SEATTLE — On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement saying they will be working with Homeland Security to ‘aggressively’ revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with potential connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying critical fields.
“The United States, I further can say here, will not tolerate the CCP’s exploitation of US universities or theft of US research, intellectual property, or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection, or repress voices of opposition,” State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
“The Trump administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding our national security and public safety through our visa process, obviously very openly and transparently applied by Secretary Marco Rubio,” she continued.
The news of this has spread quickly at the University of Washington, especially among international students. According to the school, there are over 8,000 international students on campus; 3,886 are from China, which makes up 7.5% of the entire student population.
“...if we don’t have international students from China, I feel like that would be a huge detriment to the diversity to the school,” Nancy, a second-year student from Washington, said.
KIRO7 spoke with international students about the State Department’s announcement. Even those who aren’t from China are very worried about the ripple effects this could have.
“But the fact that could become a reality…..it kind of sucks. Like I don’t know how else to put it,” Shota, a student from Thailand said.
Many students at UW would argue that what makes the school great is its dedication to diversity.
“I really value to be able to interact with people of different backgrounds,” Nancy said.
“Basically having a melting pot of different people and all that stuff,” Shota said. “I mean, that is kind of what the US is known for, right?” he continued.
The University of Washington sent KIRO7 this statement on how the school is addressing the State Department’s decision:
“At this time, it is not known what criteria or legal justification will be used, or what fields are considered “critical.” The University is closely monitoring this situation and international student services offices will communicate directly with potentially affected students.” – Victor Balta
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