Chinese Students in Limbo

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

 

Chinese Students in Limbo for Months Waiting for US Visas

Student visa applications are stuck in ‘administrative processing.’ What does this mean for current scholars?

http://image5.sixthtone.com/image/5/17/132.jpg

 

 

If Wei Lan — a pseudonym — hadn’t returned to China in December for the winter holiday, today he would be sitting in a classroom at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, continuing his studies as a doctoral student. For the last three months, he has been anxiously awaiting the student visa that will allow him to return to his studies.

“Every day I feel more dead than alive. It’s so depressing,” Wei told Caixin.

The new semester began in January, and Wei has completed a year and a half of doctoral classes. If he gives up now, the last two years of hard work will be lost forever.

Though there are no official statistics, Wei’s case is not uncommon.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

tit for tat - from the SCMP

 

US and China must stop ‘race to bottom’ in blocking academic visas, say American scholars

• American scholars call on both countries to allow more academic exchanges after Chinese academics have their US visas revoked
• Critics also point the finger at Beijing saying it has a long history of blocking visiting academics from entering the country

 

 

Chinese students wait outside the US Embassy for visa interviews. Photo: AP

 

The assessment came after several prominent Chinese academics said they had been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigations on suspicion of spying and have had their 10-year, multi-entry US visas revoked.

But some of their American counterparts pointed out that China had been imposing restrictions on academics for decades and blocking scholarly visits, and urged both sides to halt the “race to the bottom” and allow more access to visiting experts.

. . .

Andrew Nathan, also a professor of Chinese politics at Columbia University in New York agreed that “China started the visa war”.

Nathan said that China has long been more strict in denying visas to American academics and less willing to issue 10-year multi-entry visas than the US.

“This asymmetry or lack of reciprocity has for a long time been a low-level issue on the US side, but now the US government seems to be retaliating,” he said.

“At this time of significant stress in US-China relations, it is precisely when we need to have as much dialogue among academic experts as possible,” said David Shambaugh, a professor of Chinese politics at the George Washington University.