Hundreds of Chinese scholars face US visa restrictions

Hundreds of Chinese professors, researchers and scientists have been denied long-term visas or short-term visas to visit the United States for conferences, research or other visits to collaborating institutions, in the past year.

This is far more than the few dozen scholars previously thought barred from the US as a result of US-China tensions over research espionage, technology transfer and intellectual property concerns.

The New York Times, in a report published on 14 April, said as many as 30 Chinese professors in the social sciences, heads of academic institutes and experts who help explain government policies, many of them experts in China-US relations, have had their visas to the US cancelled in the past year or put on ‘administrative review’.

But the official Global Times newspaper, which is owned by the Communist Party of China mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, this week quoted Wang Wen, executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, a think tank at Renmin University of China, as saying that at least 280 such scholars have been “unfairly treated” in this way.

Others have said that the review process for visa applications has become much longer, which has forced some scholars to cancel trips to the US as they were unable to arrive in time for conferences.

The Chinese scholars “being picked on” are with China’s “mainstream think tanks and universities”, the report said.

According to a Global Times editorial, these Chinese scholars rarely made their experiences public. “Some didn’t want to see China-US ties further affected due to their personal sufferings. Others chose to remain silent because they didn’t think it would help by speaking out.”

Name listed in China influence report

Wang and other scholars have given accounts of their visa travails elsewhere in Chinese media. Wang said he had seen his name as well as many other Chinese scholars mentioned in the US Stanford University Hoover Institution’s report, Chinese Influence and American Interests: Promoting constructive vigilance, published in November, which warned of a rising threat from China’s “penetration and influence-seeking activities” in the US.

The report comprehensively tracks purported Chinese influence in the US Congress, state and local governments, universities, think tanks, corporations, and technology and research.

“It is normal for China and the US to have competition and cooperation, and everyone just plays by the rules,” said Wang in a published interview. However, “now the US is beginning to feel anxious about the influence of Chinese scholars and they have decided not to play by the rules and cancel their visas.”

Wang suggested this may also be part of the US’s ‘decoupling’ policy against China, which seeks to reduce US dependence on trade with China, and which underpins the US position in the ongoing China-US trade war.

“Though over 280 Chinese scholars have had their US visas cancelled or obstructed, or have been harassed by FBI agents since 2018, I think we should stay calm on this. The US may be able to ‘delink’ the 280 Chinese scholars, but it cannot cut off the 5.3 million mutual visits every year,” Wang said, adding he was still confident about going to the US in the future.

According to the official China Daily newspaper, Wang’s 10-year visa was cancelled via an email in February.

“My visa was cancelled after I attended a conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta,” Wang has said in other interviews, referring to a symposium held in the US in January to mark the 40th anniversary of China-US diplomatic ties.

He says that before that he went to the US three to five times a year, normally for academic exchange events and dialogues between Chinese and US think tanks on trade issues and South China Sea issues. “None of these are sensitive activities,” he said.

Some China scholars have been told they can apply for single entry visas to the US instead, but Wang described the questions for this process as “too intrusive”, for example having to provide travel history over the past 15 years.

Scholars relate experiences

Official Chinese media reported that the academic community in China was “in shock” over the New York Times report but noted that no evidence was offered by US authorities on Chinese scholars’ alleged intelligence links.

Lu Xiang, research fellow of China-US relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), who previously made five to six trips to the US on a 10-year visa, said: “I received a call from the US Embassy in China in October 2018 telling me that my 10-year visa had been cancelled as I didn’t meet its criteria.

“That happened just 15 days after my last trip to the US,” he said. “I have heard about the cancellation of US visas, but it really surprised me when it happened to me.

“When I was at an airport in the US waiting for my flight back to China, two FBI agents showed up – it was my first contact with the bureau – saying they wanted to talk with me at a private place. I refused and then, there in a public area they asked me questions such as who is related to my job and whether I had secretly met someone in the US – they seemed to worry that I was going to infiltrate the US. The conversation lasted 30 minutes.

“It’s ludicrous to reject Chinese scholars from entering the US based on FBI concerns that they are related to China’s intelligence agency. The CASS is an independent academy which does not report to or follow the orders of any intelligence department,” Lu said.

He noted he would have to apply for a single-entry visa if he wanted to go to the US again.

Visa denials rare in the past

Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, noted that the cancellation of Chinese visitors’ visas to the US had been very rare in the past, though it had happened with Russian academics during the Cold War.

He revealed he had also been interviewed by the FBI while in the US.

“Social science scholars are targeted because their research often involves China’s policies and communications with government departments,” Jin said. “However, such research is also very normal in Western countries and no normal country will treat scholars undertaking policy research as spies. This is just ridiculous.”

Zhu Feng, executive director of the China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University, said his 10-year visa to the US was cancelled by FBI agents while he was about to board a flight back to Beijing at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2018, after first threatening to revoke the visa if he did not cooperate with enquiries. Zhu was also twice denied single-entry visas to the US.

Last year the US also made it more difficult for graduate students and researchers working in ‘sensitive research fields’ such as robotics, aeronautics and artificial intelligence to get longer term, five-year visas, forcing many to apply for visas on a yearly basis.

Reports also surfaced that the US administration was considering a visa ban on all Chinese students wanting to study in the US.

Restrictions on entering China

Academics in the US and Australia who specialise in China have noted they often faced visa refusals to enter China, particularly if they are involved in research on sensitive topics such as Xinjiang or Tibet.

But Chinese officials say the two cannot be compared. CASS’s Lu said with no hint of irony: “The biggest difference is we [Chinese scholars] do not contact any non-mainstream people or those who threaten US national security. However there have been Americans who have previously come to China to contact such people.”

Other US academics said, however, that the US risked damaging its reputation for being open and inclusive in its pursuit of knowledge. And some feared an escalating tit-for-tat that could damage international academic research collaboration.

Last week US media reported that China declined a visa to Michael Pillsbury, a China expert at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington who has advised US President Donald Trump. Global Times described Pillsbury in its 18 April editorial as a “renowned China hawk” and underlined that American media speculated that it was China’s retaliation for US visa denials to Chinese scholars.

The often-bombastic tabloid newspaper said: “If the US continues treating Chinese scholars unfairly, then it would be impossible for China not to respond.”