W.Va. Republican's bill would ban visas for Chinese students

Freshman Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) is backing legislation that would prohibit all Chinese nationals from obtaining student visas.

The bill, dubbed the Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act (Stop CCP VISAs Act) would cut off the threat of Chinese students spying on the American government or stealing advanced technology, Moore said in a news release Friday.

"Every year we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property and threaten national security," Moore said in a statement. "Congress needs to end China’s exploitation of our student visa program. It’s time we turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas going to Chinese nationals."

Moore said in a social media post on X that he introduced the legislation Friday with co-sponsors Republican Reps. Brandon Gill (Texas), Addison McDowell (N.C.), Troy Nehls (Texas), Andy Ogles (Tenn.) and Scott Perry (Pa.).

Moore's bill does not yet appear in Congress' digital repository of legislation, and a spokesman for Moore didn't immediately respond to The Hill's request for a copy of the proposed legislation or additional information.

A Fox News article on Moore's plan, which the congressman's office linked to on his government website, includes a short 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,” it reads.

The government issued 289,526 student visas to Chinese nationals in 2023, according to the data compiled by Open Doors, which is sponsored by the State Department.

“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 said in a statement.

They pointed to three specific cases in arguing the legislation’s importance:

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.

John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) issued a statement condemning the proposal.

“While national security is of utmost importance to Americans, resorting to racism and xenophobia is never the answer,” he said. “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,” he added.

Yang said Chinese students already are opting to study in other countries out of fear of racial profiling in the U.S.

“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,” he said. “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.”

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