Chinese Students Denied Entry, Interrogated For Hours In US; Nation Goes For Protest

The Chinese government has appealed to the US government about how Chinese students are treated in the nation. According to the Chinese government, some of the students have been subjected to hours-long interrogations, had their electronic devices inspected, and in some cases, have been forcibly deported.

Chinese with valid visas denied entry into US

According to a post on the Chinese Embassy website, Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador in Washington, stated that throughout the past few months, hundreds of Chinese citizens with valid visas have been refused entrance when returning to school after traveling abroad or seeing family in China.

“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 on Sunday at an event at the embassy on student exchanges. “This is absolutely unacceptable.”

US-China student exchange

The demonstration coincides with efforts by the US and China to strengthen ties, which have become tense in recent years over trade, technology, human rights, and, more importantly, the course of the globe, by promoting student and other exchanges.

According to the embassy statement, over 290,000 Chinese students study in the US, making up around one-third of all international students studying there. More than 1.3 million Chinese students are studying overseas, more than any other nation, according to the report.

The Chinese Embassy stated it had made “solemn representations” to the US authorities regarding the treatment of students arriving at Dulles airport in Washington, D.C. in a separate online statement. Chinese students were urged to exercise caution when entering through the airport by the message. It was unclear from Xie’s remarks if they solely applied to Dulles instances or to those at other points of entry as well.

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Chinese students interrogated on entry

After lengthy hours of questioning, Chinese students were asked if their studies were funded by the Chinese government, if they were members of the Chinese Communist Party or its youth arm, and if their research was connected to the Chinese government, the Chinese military, or important state laboratories. Since November, at least three cases at Dulles have been reported by China’s state media, in which the Chinese students lost their valid student visas, were banned from entering China for five years, and were eventually repatriated. The students were on their way to the University of Maryland, Yale University, and the National Cancer Institute, in that order.

Students returned home

State media sources claim that since November, at least eight Chinese nationals entering the US with legitimate documentation have been returned home. Requests for comments were not answered by the US Embassy in Beijing or the US Department of Homeland Security.

According to a statement from the Chinese Embassy, the impacted students had their electronic devices inspected, were not allowed to speak with anybody outside, and in certain situations, were detained for longer than ten hours. It stated that border control agents’ acts “have caused great psychological harm and had a serious impact on the studies of international students from China.”

The statement added that the acts went against the commitment to advance people-to-people relations made by Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden during their meeting in November of last year.