USA Clamps Down on Entry of Grad Students and Researchers With Connections to Chinese Military

(AmericanInstituteOfPhysics.org) A new presidential proclamation bars entry to the U.S. for many Chinese graduate students and visiting researchers if they have ever been connected to Chinese institutions deemed to have military ties. The move comes as even stricter limits on Chinese nationals studying or conducting research in STEM fields are being proposed in Congress.
President Trump issued a proclamation that went into effect June 1 that bars entry to the U.S. for Chinese graduate students and visiting researchers who are regarded as posing a risk of passing technological knowledge back to the Chinese military because they have ties to certain institutions in China. The proclamation does not list specific institutions that would disqualify applicants for entry, leaving application of the policy to the State Department’s discretion.
For the Chinese government, the concept of military-civil fusion broadly connotes an ability to readily and interchangeably apply national resources to either military or civilian uses. However, the State Department holds the strategy also involves aggressively exploiting technologies developed in other countries through means such as talent recruitment programs, investments in private companies, intelligence gathering, and “outright theft.” The department asserts that China specifically targets technologies with dual civilian and military uses, citing quantum computing, semiconductors, 5G telecommunications, advanced nuclear technology, aerospace technology, and artificial intelligence as examples.