US floats plan to expel thousands of Chinese college students

Visa revocation proposal faces opposition from US universities and scientific organisations that host Chinese students.

In the latest sign of tensions between the United States and Beijing over trade, the coronavirus pandemic, human rights and the status of Hong Kong, the Trump administration may soon expel thousands of Chinese graduate students enrolled at universities in the US and impose other sanctions against Chinese officials.

President Donald Trump said he would make an announcement about China on Friday, and administration officials said he is considering a months-old proposal to revoke the visas of students affiliated with educational institutions in China linked to the People's Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence.

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Trump is also weighing targeted travel and financial sanctions against Chinese officials for actions in Hong Kong, US officials told the Associated Press news agency.

"We'll be announcing what we're doing tomorrow with respect to China and we are not happy with China," Trump told reporters at an unrelated event on Thursday, referring mainly to COVID-19. "We are not happy with what's happened. All over the world people are suffering, 186 countries. All over the world they're suffering. We're not happy."

Although the student expulsions are not directly related to Hong Kong and China's move to assert full control over the former British territory, potential sanctions against officials involved in that effort would be a result of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's determination that Hong Kong can no longer be considered autonomous from mainland China.

Pompeo notified the US Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong is no longer deserving of the preferential trade and commercial status it has enjoyed from the US since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Under a joint Sino-British agreement on the handover, Hong Kong was to be governed differently than the mainland for 50 years under a "one country, two systems" policy.