A House select committee is demanding that six universities answer questions about how they are dealing with what it considers a national security risk from Chinese students.
Those universities are the University of Southern California, Purdue, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Maryland and Illinois.
“America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing,” said the letter from Rep. John Moolenaar, (R-MI), the chairman of the House committee, “providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security.”
According to USA Today, none of the universities have made any public comments about the letter. However, Purdue data shows that international student pay only $310 more per semester than out of state students. They make up 10% of the graduate student population, and 3.5% overall.
Aljazeera reports that China’s Foreign Ministry harshly criticized the request from the House Committee calling on the U.S. to “stop overstretching the concept of national security” and to “protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students.”
Recently, Rep Riley Moore (R-W VA) introduce the “Stop CCP Visas Act” to prevent Chinese students from studying in the U.S. or to take part in exchange programs.
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While the US is threatening to stop inviting Chinese students to study in the United States, China is inviting 50,000 students from the United States to visit China free of charge. Already, Oakland’s Great Wall Youth Orchestra, including a few parents, accepted an invitation and made a visit to Beijing back in December. We need to remind our past practice to engage in Friendship First, Competition Second in order to restore normalized relations.