First-term Rep. Riley Moore (R-West Virginia) supports legislation that would prohibit all Chinese nationals from obtaining student visas.
The bill, known as the Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act (Stop CCP VISAs Act), would eliminate the threat of Chinese students spying on the American government or stealing advanced technology, Moore stated in a news release Friday.
“Every year, we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese citizens to enter the United States on student visas. “We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and endanger national security,” Moore said in a statement. “Congress must end China’s abuse of our student visa program. It’s time to turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas for Chinese nationals.”
Moore said in a post on social media platform X that he introduced the bill on Friday with Republican Reps. Brandon Gill (Texas), Addison McDowell (North Carolina), Troy Nehls (Texas), Andy Ogles (Tennessee), and Scott Perry (Pa.).
Moore’s bill has yet to appear in Congress’s digital repository of legislation, and a Moore spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for a copy of the proposed legislation or additional information.
A Fox News article about Moore’s plan, which the congressman’s office linked to on his government website, includes a brief two-page draft document.
“An alien who is a national of the People’s Republic of China may not be issued a visa or otherwise provided status as a non-immigrant … for the purpose of conducting research or pursuing a course of study,” according to the law.
In 2023, the government issued 289,526 student visas to Chinese nationals, according to data compiled by Open Doors, a State Department sponsored organization.
“The Chinese Communist Party is fundamentally opposed to our American values, and yet we have handed out hundreds of thousands of student visas to Chinese nationals, many of whom are state-sponsored spies,” Gill told reporters.
They argued the importance of the legislation by citing three specific cases:
- A University of Minnesota graduate student, Fengyun Shi, who is a Chinese national, was sentenced to six months behind bars after he pleaded guilty to taking drone footage of defense sites in Virginia.
- Five Chinese nationals, who were University of Michigan students at the time, were charged last year after they were caught monitoring a 2023 training exercise at a Michigan Army National Guard facility.
- And Ji Chaoqun, 31, a Chinese national who came to the U.S. in 2014 as a student to study at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was sentenced in 2023 to eight years in prison for acting as a foreign agent of China’s Ministry of State Security.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice’s (AAJC) president and executive director, John C. Yang, condemned the proposal.
“While national security is of utmost importance to Americans, resorting to racism and xenophobia is never the answer,” he told reporters. “The overwhelming majority of students and scholars simply come here to learn.”
“History has shown us time and again that exclusionary policies based on stereotyping rarely address actual national security concerns — instead they fuel prejudice, division and unfair targeting of Asian immigrants and the Asian American community more broadly,” according to him.
Yang said Chinese students are already choosing to study in other countries due to fears of racial profiling in the United States.
“Past discriminatory policies have destroyed lives and affected our ability to attract and retain talent, which can affect our country’s competitiveness as global leaders in technology and innovation,” according to him.
“If enacted, the Stop CCP VISAs Act would have even greater effects as a result of unilaterally blocking all Chinese students from coming to the U.S. and contributing to our economy simply because of their nationality.”
