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Chinese students prepare to sue after Trump law blocks path to US universities
- Presidential proclamation bans entry to the US by graduates and researchers with links to China’s ‘military-civil fusion strategy’
- Students from eight Chinese universities raise US$300,000 to fund legal action and prepare for a long and expensive court case
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A group of Chinese students unable to get visas to pursue advanced science degrees at top US universities are aiming to collectively file a lawsuit against the US government.
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The students are from eight Chinese universities – the so-called Seven Sons of National Defence as well as Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications – that were targeted over their links to the Chinese military.
The Seven Sons of National Defence institutions – Northwestern Polytechnical University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Nanjing University of Science and Technology and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics – acquired their name because of their history of close collaboration with the People’s Liberation Army.
The visa rejections are based on Presidential Proclamation 10043 issued by then US president Donald Trump in May 2020. It bans entry to the US by postgraduate students and researchers with links to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy” to prevent espionage and the illegal collection of intellectual property.
The pandemic caused visa processing in the US embassy and consulates in China to be suspended for over a year. When processing resumed, students from the eight institutions found they were almost guaranteed to have their visa application rejected without detailed evaluation under PP10043, according to the students.
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