Trump’s bid to calm foreign students adds to visa confusion for Chinese

President Donald Trump’s comment that international students in the US would be “fine” has only added to the confusion about his administration’s stance, following controversy over an earlier announcement that it would “aggressively” cancel Chinese student visas.

Asked on Friday about what message he would send to foreign students in the country, Trump said: “Well, they’re going to be OK. It’s going to work out fine.”

“We just want to check out the individual students we have. And that’s true with all colleges,” he told reporters at the White House.

This came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on social media late on Wednesday that the US would “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students, particularly “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”.

He said the US Department of State would also revise “visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications” from mainland China and Hong Kong.

But the scope of the visa crackdown remains unclear, with Rubio’s department refusing to specify the criteria for visa revocation or clarify what constitutes “critical fields” and how ties to China’s ruling party would be defined.

Beijing lodged formal protests and condemned the move as “politically motivated and discriminatory” on Thursday, amid signs of renewed tensions despite a 90-day tariff truce between the two countries.