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
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.
A student surnamed Li, a member of the student group behind the legal challenge, said students were preparing with a lawyer to appeal on the basis that the proclamation was unreasonably implemented and that it did not safeguard national security.