A Chinese student’s graduation speech at Harvard University emphasising “shared humanity” and calling for global unity has gone viral, days after the Trump administration pledged to “aggressively” revoke the visas of students from China.
Advertisement
Yurong “Luanna” Jiang is the first Chinese woman selected to be the student speaker at a Harvard graduation ceremony.
Her emotional speech on Thursday was delivered on the same day that a federal judge blocked a Department of Homeland Security order seeking to prevent the Ivy League university from enrolling international students.
US President Donald Trump’s showdown with Harvard – which the White House accuses of maintaining ties with the Chinese Communist Party – unfolds against the backdrop of deepening US-China tensions.
The US State Department announced last week that it would intensify screening and “aggressively” revoke student visas for Chinese nationals, including “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”.
Advertisement
The move is widely believed to stem from Washington’s long-standing concerns that Chinese students enrolled in advanced science and engineering programmes could be involved in espionage activities that bolster Beijing’s military capabilities, posing a significant national security threat.