A 22-year-old philosophy student from China thought his arrival in Texas this month would be uneventful after a gruelling 29-hour flight. He had all the required paperwork, a full scholarship to study at the University of Houston, and prior experience studying in the United States including a semester-long exchange at Cornell University without any issues.
Instead, the student, identified only by his family name, Gu, was stopped at the airport for questioning due to political sensitivities. After a lengthy interrogation, he was placed on a return flight to China just 36 hours later and barred from reentering the United States for five years. There is no opportunity for the life I had expected,” Gu said, describing how his hopes of building an academic career in the U.S. were abruptly cut short.
Gu is not alone. Although the total number remains unclear, he is among a growing group of Chinese students who, despite having valid visas, have been denied entry or subjected to intense questioning upon arrival at U.S. airports. The incidents have sparked protests from Beijing and highlight the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s shifting policies toward Chinese students.
The Trump administration has swung between extremes at one point weighing the mass revocation of visas for Chinese students, and at another, with Trump personally stating he would welcome hundreds of thousands” of them, partly to help sustain financially struggling American universities.
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