US revokes visas for 1,000 Chinese students

Washington: The US State Department said that it has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 "high-risk" Chinese students and researchers, it was reported on Thursday.

The Department gave no further details on the move, but a spokeswoman said they were only a "small subset" of the total number of Chinese students coming to the US, reports the BBC.

"We continue to welcome legitimate students and scholars from China who do not further the Chinese Communist Party's goals of military dominance," she was quoted as saying in a statement.

Nearly 370,000 students from China enrolled at US universities in 2018-19.

Thursday's development follows the May 29 proclamation by President Donald Trump aimed at Chinese nationals suspected of having ties to the military.

It accuses China of engaging in a "wide-ranging and heavily resourced campaign to acquire sensitive US technologies and intellectual property" and said it was using some students "to operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property".