Chinese Students Alerted as U.S. Universities Issue Travel Advisories

Before Trump takes office next month, a number of major U.S. universities have issued travel advisories or sent out emails to students, urging them to return to campus by January 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration. Chinese students in the United States, amid the historical low point in U.S.-China relations, are particularly vigilant about such news.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst issued a travel advisory on November 19, telling students to “ strongly consider returning to the United States prior to the presidential inauguration day of January 20, 2025, if they are planning on traveling internationally during the winter holiday break.” The University cited the travel bans issued by the Trump administration’s first term as a precaution this time to remind students to prepare earlier for such possibilities.

Wesleyan University, a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, sent out an email to faculty and students, saying, “With the presidential inauguration happening on Monday, January 20, 2025, and uncertainties around President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for immigration-related policy, the safest way to avoid difficulty re-entering the country is to be physically present in the U.S. on January 19th and the days thereafter of the spring semester.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) advised international students to anticipate possible delays in visa processing and consider returning before Trump’s inauguration date.

Harvard’s email to international students addressed the question that many students have asked about potential changes to immigration policies. “Our recurring advice to those who share concerns about situations that would disrupt or delay your return from break is to budget time ahead of the semester start, prior to the January Martin Luther King holiday,” its international office wrote.

This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday falls on Monday, Jan. 20, which is the same day as Trump’s inauguration when he has the presidential power to pass executive orders. Other universities, such as Yale University, the University of Colorado Denver, Cornell, and the University of Southern California, expressed similar concerns.

Reviewing Trump’s first-term policy on immigration, it is understandable that the universities have a reason to be cautious. Seven days after the Trump administration took office in 2017, his administration issued Executive Order 13769, which restricted entry into the United States for citizens of countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Libya under the pretext of preventing terrorism. Since most of the affected countries on the list were predominantly Muslim countries, this order became widely known as the “Muslim Ban.”

The ban faced widespread criticism, including multiple legal challenges in court. The Trump administration later issued two revised versions of the travel ban, introducing specific conditions under which individuals could enter the U.S. Upon the first day of his presidency, the Biden administration repealed Trump’s travel bans.

After winning the election in November, Trump’s stance on whether to bring back the previous travel bans became a focus point. At a September event with Republican donor Miriam Adelson, Trump stated that he would “seal our border and bring back the travel ban.” For Chinese students, their worries stem from the fact that the country is seen by the United States as its biggest economic and security rival.

According to multiple media outlets, Chinese students are nervous about the second Trump administration’s immigration policy. An advisory statement released by Cornell University on November 26 stated that China and India could be added to the list. The two countries together accounted for over half of all international students in the U.S., according to a report by the Institute of International Education.

A Chinese student named Kevin Lu, who was studying at the University of Southern California, changed his winter travel plan to visit his parents in China rather than stay on campus to avoid any unpleasant disruptions. His story is typical of Chinese students who study in the United States and are familiar with the impact of political factors could have on their studies.

Living in heightened bilateral tensions, Chinese students have faced increasing scrutiny regarding their path to study in the United States. Even under the Biden administration, there were reports that Chinese students were subjected to secondary screening and being held in “little black rooms” when they tried to enter the U.S. with a valid visa.

From January to March, students in Ph.D. science programs at Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, and other major U.S. research universities have been denied re-entry after visiting family in China, and in some cases, they were immediately sent back home, according to a Science report that was published in March 2024.

Similar reports draw diplomatic attention from both countries. A spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Washington said on April 9, “In recent years, U.S. border control personnel have continuously and unjustifiably harassed, interrogated, and deported Chinese nationals entering the U.S., especially students and scholars.” The spokesperson pointed out that, according to incomplete statistics, more than 70 Chinese students with legal and valid materials were deported since July 2021.

These numbers are relatively small compared to the 290,000 Chinese students studying in the United States. However, the impact of those incidents was widespread and caused increasing concerns among Chinese students, who wondered if their presence was welcomed on campus in the United States.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. Ambassador to China and a former Harvard University professor, posted on X on May 8, trying to eliminate students’ anxiousness and reaffirming the U.S.’s official stance on supporting international education. He wrote: “Do you know? 99.9% of Chinese students holding visas encounter no issues upon entering the United States. In 2023, the U.S. issued 105,000 visas to Chinese students, scholars, and their families. Currently, over 292,000 Chinese students are studying at various colleges and universities across the United States.”

With joint efforts from both governments, the panic surrounding the scrutiny of Chinese students entering the U.S. had gradually subsided. However, under the incoming Trump administration, will the issue of secondary inspections at airports resurface for Chinese students? Will their student visas face more delays or denials?

During Trump’s first term, Republican Senator Tom Cotton stated that the US should prohibit Chinese students from studying STEM fields. While speaking to Fox News in 2020, he said, “If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers, that’s what they need to learn from America.” He continued, “They don’t need to learn quantum computing.”

Later, Cotton and another Republican Senator, Marsha Blackburn, jointly unveiled the SECURE CAMPUS Act, a legislation that would prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields.

Fast track to the Biden administration, Cotton’s view was shared among some Democrats. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, a senior official from the Biden administration, told a crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations in June this year, “I would like to see more Chinese students coming to the United States to study humanities and social science, not particle physics.”

A House report this year indicated that the Chinese partnerships with U.S.-funded researchers and universities have helped to propel Beijing’s advancements in its military. Several universities, such as George Tech and University of California, Berkeley, have closed their joint work with Chinese partners.

Amid those hawkish stances toward Chinese students and the education exchange between the two countries, it can easily be forecast that the Chinese students’ journey to study in the United States may not be a smooth ride under the incoming Trump administration. In this regard, those universities’ travel advisories may be a good precaution.