Washington DC: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that the US will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.

In a social media post on X, Rubio wrote, “The U.S. will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”

This development comes as an another step in Donald Trump administration push to tighten control over foreign enrolments in higher education.

Earlier in the day, Trump doubled down on his attacks against Harvard University by suggesting that the institution cap the number of foreign students it admits at 15 per cent.

In a fiery remark against Harvard University, Trump suggested that many foreign nationals admitted by Harvard are “troublemakers”, disrupting the country. “We don’t want to see shopping centres explode. We don’t want to see the kind of riots that you had,” he added.

Stating that Harvard University admits almost 31 percent of foreign students which some are from “areas of the world that are very radicalised”, Trump said, “Why would 31 percent? Why would a number be so big? I think they (Harvard University) should have a cap of maybe around 15 per cent. We have people that want to go to Harvard and other schools but they can’t get in because we have foreign students there.”

“I want to make sure that foreign students are people that can love our country. We don’t want to see shopping centres explode. We don’t want to see the kind of riots that you had, and I’ll tell you what, many of those students didn’t go anywhere, many of those students were troublemakers caused by the radical left.” Trump added.

As reported by CNN, Harvard has said in court documents that full-time international students make up about a quarter of its student body. Harvard has broadly refused many government demands, including that it hand over foreign students’ entire conduct records and allow audits to confirm it has expanded “viewpoint diversity.”