Chinese students in US advised not to leave campus for holiday, in case Trump bars returns

Chinese students in the United States are postponing plans to return home while American universities advise international students to hustle back to campus after any year-end holidays – before US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration – amid concerns that potential White House travel restrictions could hinder their re-entry.

On RedBook, a well-known Chinese social media app, Chinese students in the US have reposted notices issued by their universities to address student fears about being barred from getting back into the States.

Among others, Princeton University, the University of Michigan, the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley, have sent such notices, according to the RedBook posts.

As of the first week of December, 460,000 posts appeared under the RedBook topic search string “US 1.20 entering the country”, where the number stands for Trump’s January 20 inauguration.

Trump has vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, among other pledges to toughen immigration rules.

Liam Du, 28, a student at Cornell University, has been fraught with anxiety about whether to return to China for the Lunar New Year in late January since receiving an email from the school urging students to be back on campus before Trump takes office.