May 29, 2025
NATIONWIDE – In a dramatic escalation of Trump’s assault on students and universities, the State Department under Marco Rubio is now directly targeting Chinese international students. This authoritarian attack is a blatant act of anti-Asian scapegoating that not only harms Chinese students, but also fuels hate and racial profiling against Asian people more broadly.
Trump and his administration are wrongfully treating Chinese international students as threats instead of who they truly are: young people seeking education, opportunity, and a better future in a country that has long claimed to be the land of the free. The lives and futures of the roughly 277,000 Chinese students in the U.S. today are now clouded with uncertainty.
Let’s be clear: This is not about protecting Americans. It’s racism and xenophobia disguised as national security policy. It’s blatant anti-Asian scapegoating.
The Trump regime is unfairly punishing everyday Chinese people for the actions of their government, which is wholly unjust. We saw the same type of anti-Asian scapegoating during WWII, when Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens were villainized and put into concentration camps simply because of their ethnicity or nationality.
If the State Department moves forward with its plan to “aggressively” revoke Chinese student visas, it will also fuel broader racism and discrimination against Asian people across the nation. We know all too well that when one Asian ethnic group is targeted, the hate often extends across our communities.
This was true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Trump’s racist rhetoric like “China virus” fueled a nationwide surge in anti-Asian hate that impacted AAPI people of various ethnicities and backgrounds — regardless of immigration or citizenship status. And this pattern is still painfully evident right now, as our research confirms that anti-Chinese rhetoric and xenophobic policies are fueling acts of hate against a broad range of Asian communities today.
We must not let our political leaders use the language of national security to legitimize racism and xenophobia.
In reality, this type of scapegoating undermines national security. Attacks on Chinese and other international students create a chilling effect that drives away top talent from around the world — talent critical to U.S. leadership in technology, cybersecurity, and public health.
This loss of talent also harms our nation’s economy. For decades, tens of thousands of Chinese PhD graduates in science and math have stayed in the U.S., conducting groundbreaking research and founding companies now collectively worth billions of dollars. The impact is local as well: when international students stop coming here, small college towns and big cities alike lose renters, business customers, and tuition revenue that keeps our public universities afloat. During a time of high economic uncertainty in our nation, deterring international students and talent will only make things worse.
Even as a growing number of federal courts strike down the Trump administration’s illegal attacks on students, it’s clear Trump will stop at nothing to unfairly punish students based on where they come from and what they believe.
In the face of this unjust and authoritarian attack, Stop AAPI remains in solidarity with Chinese students, targeted universities, and impacted communities. Our nation’s strength depends on ensuring the U.S. remains a welcoming place for diverse talent from around the world. Together, we must reject racism and xenophobia and stand united to protect the values of equality and opportunity that define America’s promise.
