The United States and China are at odds on yet another subject. This time, the Chinese government has protested to the U.S. government over the alleged unfair treatment of Chinese returning to study in the United States.
A Chinese national flag is pictured during the medal ceremony for the women's 63kg judo event during the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou in China's eastern Zhejiang province on September 25, 2023.
According to the accusations, reported by the Associated Press, some students had been interrogated for up to 10 hours, had their phones and computers checked and, in some cases, were forcibly repatriated and banned from the U.S.
Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng said dozens more Chinese students are being barred from entering the country every month when returning from overseas travels or from visiting relatives in China, according to the Chinese Embassy website.
"When they landed at the airport, what awaited them was an eight-hour-long interrogation by officers who prohibited them from contacting their parents, made groundless accusations against them and even forcibly repatriated them and banned their entry," he said Sunday at an event at the embassy on student exchanges. "This is absolutely unacceptable."
The U.S. and China are actively trying to boost student exchanges to fortify their relations, which have become increasingly contentious in recent years due to trade, human rights and conflicting governmental aims.
There are around 290,000 Chinese students studying in the United States, which is about one-third of the total number of foreign students studying in America. China has 1.3 million students studying abroad, more than any country in the world.
What Does China Have To Say?
The Chinese Embassy statement further stated that the affected students were prohibited from communicating with anyone outside and, in some cases, held for more than 10 hours. It said the actions of border officers "have had a serious impact on the studies of international students from China and caused great psychological harm." The statement also said that the actions ran counter to the agreement between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at their meeting last November to promote people-to-people exchanges.
In 2022, NBC News reported that the FBI opened a new China-related espionage investigation every 12 hours and now has thousands of such cases. FBI Director Christopher Wray estimated that it amounted to two new cases per day.
"This one blew me away. And I'm not the kind of guy that uses words like 'blown away' easily," he said at the time. "There is no country that presents a broader, more severe threat to our innovation, our ideas and our economic security than China does," he said.
