US visas for Chinese students on rise, official says; concerns remain about unfair treatment

The United States remains the top destination for Chinese students studying abroad despite concerns among students and parents over visas and public security, said an official with the US embassy in Beijing.

Meanwhile, Chinese students who plan to study in US universities and their parents expressed concerns about unfair treatment that US border authorities imposed on Chinese students in some cases.

Karen Gustafson, the embassy's minister counselor for consular affairs, told China Daily on Sunday that the embassy issued 105,000 visas to students from China last year. "We are currently hosting 290,000 Chinese students in the US," she said.

A report released by the US Department of State showed that in the first half of 2023, a total of 44,762 students from the Chinese mainland were granted F-1 visas to study in the US, a year-on-year increase of 44 percent.

As of the end of July, the embassy had issued more than 80,000 student visas to Chinese nationals, Gustafson said, noting the continuing increase in visas issued to Chinese students.

According to the 2023 Open Doors report released in November, Chinese students accounted for approximately 29 percent of the 1.05 million foreign students in the US during the 2022-23 academic year, down from 33 percent in the previous academic year.

Gustafson said that despite a decreasing trend, Chinese students remain the largest group of foreign students in the US, and are expected to "stay at the top and grow".

"We really wholeheartedly welcome Chinese students to come to the US, and we are always hoping to encourage more students to come," she said, adding that the embassy is making efforts to maximize student numbers and return to the peak before the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, hundreds of Chinese students and parents participated in an education fair in Beijing, seeking information on the prospects of studying abroad. Around 100 US universities attended the fair.

A fair visitor, surnamed Wang, said she hopes to address her concerns over her daughter's further education in the US by seeking advice from the universities and the organizer.

Wang said that her daughter, a student of biological sciences in Wuhan, Hubei province, is preparing to pursue postgraduate studies in the US.

Given recent cases of Chinese students, particularly those majoring in science and engineering at US universities, having their visas refused on arrival, receiving unfair treatment by border enforcement and even facing deportation, Wang said she is worried and hopes to get more information from the authorities.

In recent years, dozens of Chinese students have reported that they suffered from unwarranted harassment, interrogation and repatriation because of their political or scientific research background.

Many have posted on social media platforms their "terrifying" experiences of being taken by border officials to a "small dark room" at US airports, raising public concerns.

"What I care about most is the safety of my child and whether she can smoothly graduate from a US university," Wang said, adding that she had heard that Chinese students applying for certain subjects face higher risks of visa rejection.

Gustafson called such cases isolated incidents, and said the majority of Chinese students are continuing their studies in the US.

While the US embassy is in charge of issuing visas, entry into the country is handled by the Department of Homeland Security, she said.

"What I can say is the vast majority of Chinese students going to the USend up studying in the US, and we really welcome them to continue to do so," she added.

Significant harm

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in April that enforcing deportation orders against Chinese students has caused significant harm to the individuals concerned and disrupted cultural and academic exchanges between China and the US.

"Recent cases demonstrate that US law enforcement officers are engaging in deportation for the sake of deportation, exhibiting political, discriminatory and selective enforcement," she said at a news conference.

Zhu Chenge, an assistant researcher of US diplomacy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the excessive scrutiny of Chinese students by US authorities may seem to affect only a small group, but it is in reality demolishing one of the pillars of the complex interactions between China and the US.

"Normal academic exchanges between two technological powerhouses are disrupted. It is certainly not a positive sign if students and scholars are more concerned about their personal safety than academic matters," Zhu said.

Wang Jialing, a 10th grader in the international class at RCF Experimental School in Beijing, has started to prepare his US university application.

Aiming to enroll into the University of Southern California as a finance major, he inquired about application procedures and career prospects at the education fair. He said he wants to choose a college among the top 50 in the US in a relatively safe state, and plans to return to China after obtaining a bachelor's degree.

Liu Fangyuan, director of the University of Minnesota's China office, said the number of Chinese students at the university has been increasing after the pandemic, and currently accounts for about one-third of the over 5,200 international students on campus.

Around 70 percent of Chinese students apply for undergraduate studies, with most of them seeking to major in business or trending subjects such as computer science and artificial intelligence, she said, adding that no Chinese students at her college has reported visa problems.