Over 60 US universities attend the forum to attract Chinese students in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on March 23, 2018. Photo: VCG

Increasingly more Chinese students said they have lost confidence in the US, and find it irrelevant to stay in the US after finishing their courses in the country, as they feel they are being used as cards by US politicians to win the presidential election and wrestle with China, after the Trump administration flip-flopped on a policy that would bar international students who only take online courses from staying in the US.

The policy, which was launched and withdrawn capriciously, was just the Trump administration's attempt to gain votes in the upcoming presidential election and divert  public attention from its failure to control COVID-19, the students said.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday agreed to rescind a policy that would have required international students to take in-person classes in order to remain in the country, US media reported.

The reversal came after ICE announced the policy on July 6, which would have affected more than one million international students.

The authority gave a detailed explanation of the new rule on July 7, saying if there are no in-person classes, the students will need to leave the country, although their student record can be maintained.

The policy sparked outrage among academics, with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology  on July 8 suing the Trump administration in federal court, seeking to stop the order.

Due to fears over the COVID-19 pandemic, many US schools have launched online-only courses. However, in response to the new policy, universities launched plans to offer more offline learning in the fall semester while many of them, including Harvard and MIT, filed a litany of lawsuits seeking to block the policy.

A Chinese student at Parsons School of Design, who gave her name as "Julie," told the Global Times that the policy reversal  is the result of the efforts of many schools, student organizations, and teachers.

"This is a significant victory," Harvard's president said in a statement.

Julie said she was not that shocked when she first heard about the policy because "anything can happen in the US these days," but at the same time she felt very anxious, depressed and even regretted staying in the country when the pandemic started. 

Julie said 44 percent of students at her school are international students.

After the policy was launched, Julie found that the earliest flight back home she could book was in October, and her visa would have expired before that.

Julie found that students who had returned to China had found internships and their lives have returned to normal. However, "if the visa policy can't be changed, and I can't return to China on schedule, I would have a stigma of being an illegal overstayer."

Julie has also witnessed the social unrest in the US, including the nationwide demonstrations and riots after African American George Floyd was suffocated to death by a white police officer on May 25, further understanding the hypocrisy of the country that boasts about "democracy and human rights first." Julie said the truth is that the country's politicians put their interests first.

"The politicians play hard only to win the presidential election, which in essence should be for the sake of the country and the people, but now they just leave the country and the people in a lurch, putting the cart before the horse."

That is really the supremacy of capital. I didn't expect them to be so blatant in their pursuit."

Like the majority of students, Julie has decided to hurry back to China after graduation, despite originally planning to work in the US for several years.

A Chinese student at the University of Florida surnamed Tang told the Global Times that the reversal is good news for them because at least they don't need to take the risk of infection when taking offline classes. However, Tang noted that the online-only learning is merely a short band aid as long as the pandemic continues in the US. 

He plans to decline an internship offer in the US and fly back to China to take online learning until graduation at the end of this year because the COVID-19 situation in the US worries him. 

Echoing Tang, an anonymous 28-year-old Chinese student, who has been studying in the US for six years and pursuing her PhD at Massachusetts State, told the Global Times that the Trump administration is playing the immigration card again to restart the economy under the pandemic. 

She said she is not interested in staying in the US after graduation, as she is worried that changes in major policies would continue in the country.

 "My study, life and career are not determined by my hard work and talent, but played like pawns in the hands of politicians, which makes me question my plan to stay in the US," she noted


Newspaper headline: Trump's visa policy flip-flop turns off Chinese students