My Take | Trump offer of 600,000 Chinese student visas just more cheap talk
US president says one thing while his administration and numerous states do the opposite via discrimination and ill-treatment of arrivals
Donald Trump says he wants to allow 600,000 Chinese students into the United States, twice the current figure. This is despite the hostile actions and public pronouncements made by his administration and other US state authorities.
It’s hard to know whether to take him seriously. As his one-time national security adviser turned nemesis John Bolton told the Financial Times, “For Donald Trump, talk is cheap. What he says in the morning may or may not be what he says in the afternoon.”
In context, the US president was telling reporters that President Xi Jinping had invited him on a state visit to China. So the student visa reference might be no more than a friendly signal. Beijing has so far not confirmed such an invitation.
However, the Chinese embassy in Washington, the Ministry of Education and the foreign ministry in Beijing have all warned about rough treatment targeting Chinese students at US borders and airports.
Trump’s own officials, including the US secretary of state, have claimed many Chinese students and ethnic Chinese researchers in the US could be communist spies.
In any case, the president is underselling his student visa scheme. His Make America Great Again base supporters such as far-right Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene have poured scorn on such a move.