As tensions with China rise, scientists at America’s leading universities complain of stalled research after crackdown at airports

Stopped at the border, interrogated on national security grounds, laptops and mobile phones checked, held for several hours, plans for future research shattered. ⠀

Earlier this month the Chinese embassy in Washington said more than 70 students “with legal and valid materials” had been deported from the US since July 2021, with more than 10 cases since November 2023. The embassy said it had complained to the US authorities about each case. ⠀

“The impact is huge,” says Qin Yan, a professor of pathology at Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, who says that he is aware of more than a dozen Chinese students from Yale and other universities who have been rejected by the US in recent months, despite holding valid visas. Experiments have stalled, and there is a “chilling effect” for the next generation of Chinese scientists. ⠀

The refusals appear to be linked to a 2020 US rule that barred Chinese postgraduate students with links to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy”, which aims to leverage civilian infrastructure to support military development. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute thinktank estimates that 95 civilian universities in China have links to the defence sector.

Nearly 2,000 visas applications were rejected on that basis in 2021. But now people who pass the security checks necessary to be granted a visa by the State Department are being turned away at the border by CBP, a different branch of government.

“It is very hard for a CBP officer to really evaluate the risk of espionage,” said Dan Berger, an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts, who represents a graduate student at Yale who, midway through her PhD, was sent back from Washington’s Dulles airport in December, and banned from re-entering the US for five years. ⠀

Academics say that scrutiny has widened to different fields – particularly medical sciences – with the reasons for the refusals not made clear.

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  • Omega_Haxors
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    8 months ago

    and because they’re on an instance without downvotes they’re only going to see the 7 upvotes they did get. It’s 2024 why are people still buying into capitalist realism?? All the guys pushing for it have all moved on to pushing pedo-nazi shit you should be better than this.

      • Omega_Haxors
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        8 months ago

        People pushing for capitalist realism absolutely are, and usually the nazism comes secondary to the pedophilia with those types.

        Also, relevant meme:

        • wildncrazyguy@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          Never said communism is bad, friend, just that it’s not a good idea to be consumed by any ideological framework - that’s how you become a zealot or worse, an enabler to someone who corrupts the cause.

            • wildncrazyguy@kbin.social
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              8 months ago

              Wow, you sure got me there with your sick memes and short blasts. You can see the ills of the world cowering by the appearance of your civil discourse.

              • Omega_Haxors
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                8 months ago

                Umm that’s projection. I don’t even try to be civil, never have and never will.

                • wildncrazyguy@kbin.social
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                  8 months ago

                  So much like a zoo monkey, you exist for the fascination of others, and the occasional casting of feces their way? I see. I’ll continue to view you from the cage you’ve made for yourself then, while keeping some distance.