"Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of State will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas from Chinese students," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

The Foreign Ministry also intends to review the criteria for issuing visas in order to "strengthen the verification of all future visa applications from China and Hong Kong."

"It is still unclear how quickly the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security will begin the process of canceling visas for Chinese students," The New York Times newspaper notes. - It is also unclear by what criteria the American authorities will determine students with "ties to the Chinese Communist Party."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has protested to the US government in this regard, calling the administration's plans discriminatory practices.

"The unjustified revocation by the American side of visas for students from China under the pretext of ideology and national security seriously violates the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupts normal exchanges between people of the two countries," Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

According to official data, in the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 1.1 million international students studied in the United States. Students from China were in second place in number after India (about 330 thousand) - 277.3 thousand people, or 24.6%.

It is worth noting that the statement by the Secretary of State followed an order to the US embassies and consulates temporarily not to schedule new interviews for student visas in connection with the country's administration's plans to expand the verification of applicants' social networks.