Washington, July 21 (IANS) United States Republican Congresswoman, Anna Paulina Luna, has written to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging the immediate suspension and cancellation of all F-1 and J-1 student visas held by Chinese nationals currently enrolled at higher education institutions across the country, citing recently declassified intelligence detailing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to interfere in American elections.
This came after President Donald Trump accused China of orchestrating a wide-ranging campaign to interfere in US elections, alleging that Beijing sought to undermine his presidency, acquire millions of American voter records and conceal its activities through what he described as a cover-up inside the US intelligence community.
In a letter addressed to the Secretary of State, Luna said, “As you are aware, President Trump’s recent address to the nation detailed newly declassified documents alleging that, beginning with the 2020 election cycle, the Chinese government carried out what is believed to be one of the largest cyber espionage campaigns targeting American election data in history, including the theft of voter names, addresses, phone numbers, political affiliations, and other registration information.”
“These revelations demand a serious and immediate response from every agency with the authority to act, including the Department of State,” she added.
Emphasising that American universities remain one of the most vulnerable access points for foreign intelligence services, Luna said, given the scale of the interference described in the declassified files, the US cannot in “good conscience” continue to allow the current visa pipeline to serve as a “potential vector” for CCP influence operations targeting its democratic institutions.
“As I stated publicly following the President’s address: every single Chinese student visa needs to be cancelled immediately. This is a necessary and proportionate response to a documented state-sponsored effort to undermine the integrity of American elections. We cannot afford to wait for further compromise while deliberations continue,” the letter detailed.
“We urge the Department of State to immediately review and revoke all active Chinese national student visas, and to halt the issuance of new visas to Chinese nationals pending a full accounting of the extent of this infiltration and a comprehensive review of vetting procedures at our institutions of higher education,” it concluded.
Last week, in a nationally televised address from the White House, Trump announced what he called the immediate declassification of intelligence records relating to election security, saying the documents revealed “shocking vulnerabilities” in America’s election infrastructure and detailed years of alleged Chinese efforts to influence US politics.
“The People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files,” Trump said.
–IANS
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