In a major development, the United States government (USA) has issued rules and imposed restrictions on travel visa of the members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families.
As per reports, the Trump administration has reduced the maximum validity time of B1/B2 tourist and business visas for CCP members to 1 month, down from 10 years. The decision comes at the backdrop of the growing influence of Chinese on Americans through economic coercion and propaganda.
The US State Department has clarified that the CCP sends agents to the States to threaten, intimidate and track Chinese nationals and Chinese-American groups. It is believed that the decision will have no effect until Trump lifts the travel ban on Chinese nationals, post Coronavirus outbreak.
“The United Front frequently intimidates members of academia, businesses, civil society groups, and Chinese diaspora communities, including members of ethnic and religious minority communities who speak out against horrific human rights abuses taking place in Xinjiang, Tibet, and elsewhere in China,” remarked State Secretary Mike Pompeo.
The visa restrictions on the Chinese Communist Party members and their families did not go down well with the regime. A spokeswoman at Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, denounced the move and said, “This clearly is an escalated form of political oppression towards China by some extreme anti-China forces in the U.S. who act out of intense ideological bias and a deep-rooted Cold War mentality,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
Visa restrictions result of clash between US and China
On Wednesday, the US State Department informed that more than 1000 Chinese researchers have left the United States after the government cracked down on technology theft. The House of representatives also enacted a law to remove Chinese companies from the US stock exchange, which do not comply with the country’s rules. Besides, chip-making company SMIC and gas producer CNOOC may be blacklisted for links with Chinese military companies.
China running a spy network inside top universities in US
China has successfully established a spy ring at top US universities, including Harvard and other Boston universities. Reportedly, the Chinese military sends its spies disguised as students, who are specifically trained to steal intellectual property and research documents from the university labs and send it back to China.
The US security agencies became aware of such a Chinese spy network in US universities after the arrest of Lieber. Along with Lieber, two Chinese spies disguised as researchers were also charged as agents of a foreign government. The two Chinese spies had lied about their research work, wh used their access to smuggle research samples out of the country.
One spy was a lieutenant in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which she did not disclose when she obtained a visa to enter the United States. She is accused of passing information on research conducted at Boston University to China’s government. Another spy – Zheng was arrested at Boston’s Logan International Airport as he tried to leave the United States by smuggling 21 vials containing sensitive biological samples.
