According to a report by Bloomberg on Wednesday, May 29, 2023, since November 2023, U.S. airport customs officials have banned at least 20 Chinese students and scholars with valid visas from entering the country.
One former second-year doctoral student in biomedical imaging at the University of Virginia, named Susan (pseudonym), who had been deported back to China, recounted her experience to Bloomberg. She was escorted onto a plane by armed U.S. customs officers on December 31, 2023, and informed that she was banned from entering the U.S. for five years.
In a windowless room at Dulles International Airport in Washington, U.S. customs and border patrol officers questioned her, asking if she was a member of the Chinese Communist Party, if she received government scholarships from China, and who sent her here.
When asked about her relationship with the Communist Party, she told Bloomberg that she assured them, saying, “I swear, I have no such ties. I am confident that I am innocent.”
However, the customs officers believed she was lying. 17 hours later, her student visa was revoked, and she was only given the option to purchase a $1,400 one-way ticket back to Beijing.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg News Agency, since November 2023, at least 20 Chinese students studying at prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins have been denied entry into the U.S., including Susan.
In January 2024, the Chinese government confirmed that several students were deported from Dulles Airport, and stated that Chinese officials invited by the U.S. were also questioned by customs officers.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection stated that they have a responsibility to protect the country’s borders, and that all international travelers attempting to enter the U.S., including U.S. citizens, must undergo inspection. They refused to answer questions regarding procedures, deportations, and specific cases, as well as declined to provide any data.
International student visas are issued by the U.S. State Department, while customs falls under the Department of Homeland Security. Visas allow foreign nationals to land at U.S. airports, but customs officers have the authority to decide whether to allow or deny entry to foreign nationals.
In the fiscal year ending September 2023, the State Department issued 105,000 visas to Chinese students and scholars. A State Department spokesperson previously publicly stated that 99.9% of Chinese students holding visas entered the U.S., with less than 0.1% of students being denied entry.
U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, also stated that 99.9% of Chinese students holding visas had no issues entering the U.S.
Two weeks before Susan was deported, a fifth-year doctoral student at Yale University, known as Meng Fei (pseudonym), was also detained and deported by the same customs officer at Dulles Airport. Meng Fei described her 20-hour ordeal at customs in a blog post using a pseudonym.
She was ultimately put on a flight and returned to China at her own expense, being informed by customs that she was banned from entering the U.S. for five years.
Meng Fei’s lawyer, Dan Berger, stated that Meng was informed that her deportation was based on Presidential Proclamation 10043. Berger has filed a motion for reconsideration on behalf of Meng with the customs agency.
According to past media reports, Meng Fei previously studied at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In May 2020, the then-administration of President Trump issued a proclamation banning Chinese students and scholars holding F visas (student visas) and J visas (visiting scholar visas) that are “associated with the Chinese military.” The executive order empowered customs officials to deny entry to Chinese graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
The State Department stated that customs invoked this presidential executive order to deny visas to 1,964 Chinese students and 1,764 Chinese scholars in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The U.S. has never publicly disclosed a list of Chinese universities subjected to the ban; however, Chinese media have identified eight Chinese universities that are more likely to trigger deportations, particularly those supported by the China Scholarship Council.
Most Chinese students who were denied visas were reported to have previously studied at eight universities, including Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
A spokesperson for the University of Virginia stated that they could not comment on Susan’s case but mentioned that the university is cooperating with federal agencies to better understand their practices and what remedial actions affected students can take.
A spokesperson for Yale University stated that they are working with each affected student to provide legal and financial support and ensuring that they can explore avenues to seek redress from government agencies to allow them to return to the U.S. for their studies.
For Meng Fei, this may mean she could potentially defend her thesis remotely from China.
It’s reported that the Biden administration continues to enforce the national security memorandum issued by the Trump administration regarding the scrutiny of foreign students. The memorandum requires the Department of State to collaborate with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure visa issuance reflects the “evolving risks of American research.”
Susan’s lawyer mentioned that when customs officials asked her about her post-graduation plans and her interest in artificial intelligence, it was not the reason for her deportation. She expressed a willingness to return to China or stay in the U.S. Customs has yet to respond to her lawyer’s motion to lift the five-year ban or provide a timeline for the decision.
Susan stated that she has dedicated her life to receiving a Western education and wants to use her degree to help solve medical issues, such as improving cancer diagnosis.
“That officer misunderstood my information, incorrectly documented it, and then asked why I wasn’t telling the truth,” Susan said.
Political commentator Li Linyi believes that based on discussions online about those denied entry to the U.S., the relationship between Chinese students, scholars, and the Chinese Communist Party is a focal point of U.S. official scrutiny.
He stated that the Chinese Communist Party is actually to blame for these individuals being denied entry to the U.S. He expressed that distancing from the Party or publicly disassociating from it is crucial to providing assurances for Chinese individuals to safely enter the U.S.
In January 2023, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo published a video on the Hudson Institute website, stating that the Chinese Communist Party is exploiting Sino-U.S. academic exchanges to undermine academic freedom.
He mentioned that thousands of Chinese students enter U.S. universities or colleges each year, making them the largest international student group in the U.S., which he hailed as a great thing.
“But the Chinese Communist Party has undermined these academic exchanges,” Pompeo said, “It attempts to utilize these students who come here to study by occasionally sending spies among them.”
He pointed out that the Chinese Consulate in the U.S. openly coerces and intimidates through Party-controlled campus organizations, while also controlling and intimidating Chinese students within the U.S.