The US academic partnership with China, under strain for years, faces its biggest threat

WASHINGTON AP Frayed by tariff wars and political battles the academic ties between the U S and China are now facing their greatest threat yet as the Trump administration promises to revoke visas for an unknown number of Chinese students and tighten future visa screening In a brief report Wednesday Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented the U S will aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students including those with ties to the Chinese Public Party or studying critical fields Rubio s report threatened to widen a chasm between the two nations building on a yearslong Republican campaign to rid U S campuses of Chinese influence and insulate America s research from its strongest economic and military competitor Rubio s announcement has rattled Chinese students and drawn swift condemnation from the Chinese governing body and various U S lawmakers It also raised alarm at U S campuses that host more than students from China and benefit from their tuition payments Chinese graduate aspirant Kesong Cao decided to abandon his studies in the U S because of Trump s policies I do not feel welcome anymore explained Cao a aspirant of cognitive psychology at the University of Wisconsin who was waiting at Seattle airport Thursday to board a flight home to China Cao spent eight years in the U S and once dreamed of staying as a professor Now it seems like that dream is falling apart he commented It s a good time to jump ship and think about what I can give back to my own country The scope of the visa crackdown wasn t right away clear with no explanation on what would constitute ties to the Communist Party But the impact could be major if the ruling body goes after any scholar with family members in the party declared Sun Yun director of the China plan at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center Academic ties with China were built over decades Academic leaders in the U S have spent years trying to tamp down growing hostility against Chinese students and scholars saying the benefits of the relationship outweigh the risks Collaboration between the countries produces tens of thousands of scientific papers a year yielding major advancements in fields from earthquake prediction to complaint therapy The academic alliance has been built up over decades since both sides resumed diplomatic ties in the s Chinese researchers are the the bulk frequent international co-authors for U S researchers in science and engineering journal articles Both sides are research powerhouses Any move that prevents the U S from welcoming the smartest people in the world is an extremely bad idea announced L Rafael Reif a former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Mechanism who pushed back against anti-China sentiment during President Donald Trump s first term This administration will be known historically as the one that began the decline of the U S by entirely failing to understand the importance of science and apparatus and the importance of gathering the largest part talented human capital from the world to work together towards a thriving United States Reif declared in a message to The Associated Press During his first term Trump shortened the visas of several Chinese graduate students from five years to one and he signed an order barring Chinese students from schools with direct links to the People s Liberation Army More in recent months the administration has taken sweeping action against international students It revoked the legal status for thousands of foreign students in the U S this spring before reversing itself The administration is also trying to block Harvard from enrolling for students a move put on hold by a judge David Lampton a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University is worried the U S will lose talent American universities and society have constantly successfully relied on their single-minded search for the world s best brains he declared Yet critics say it s a lopsided relationship that primarily benefits China A few conservatives say the exchanges are a US safeguard peril A State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce explained reporters Thursday that the U S will not tolerate the CCP s exploitation of U S universities or theft of U S research intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition House Republicans issued a review last year finding that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding has gone toward research that ultimately boosted Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence semiconductor machinery and nuclear weapons The analysis argued China s academic collaborations served as Trojan horses for innovation transfer accusing China of insidious exploitation of academic cooperation At least three American schools have ended their partnerships in China including the University of Michigan and the Georgia Institute of Equipment Eastern Michigan University was the latest to terminate a Chinese partnership just hours before Rubio s announcement Earlier this month Michigan GOP Reps John Moolenaar and Tim Walberg wrote to Duke University demanding the school end its campus in China which was created in a partnership with Wuhan University The lawmakers raised concerns that the Chinese university has links to the Chinese military including cyber warfare and satellite tracking Critics also point to the imbalance in attendee exchange only a insufficient hundred U S students review abroad in China a year compared to about from China who studied in the U S in President Xi Jinping in launched a campaign to invite young Americans to visit China on exchange and investigation programs U S universities themselves have come to rely on Chinese students Even as numbers level off Chinese students remain the second-largest group of international students in the U S behind those from India Foreign students are typically charged higher tuition rates subsidizing the instruction for American students Gary Locke a former U S ambassador to China reported the visa agenda would adversely and profoundly affect U S higher tuition research institutions scientific discovery and startups The real story isn t just about visa numbers it s also about how this changes the competitive landscape for talent innovation and economic expansion in America Treating every Chinese candidate as a measure threat distorts facts and fuels discrimination against Chinese Americans revealed Locke now chair of Committee of a group of prominent Chinese Americans focused on U S -China relations and issued faced by Chinese citizens in the U S Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco Matthew Lee in Washington and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this analysis The Associated Press schooling coverage receives financial sponsorship from multiple private foundations AP is solely responsible for all content Find AP s standards for working with philanthropies a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP org Source