'Harvard refugee': Chinese students hunker down as US blocks foreign enrollment

Beijing: Chinese students at Harvard were cancelling flights home on Friday and seeking legal advice on staying in the United States after President Donald Trump's administration blocked the famed university from enrolling foreign students.

The order, which said the university coordinated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), among other accusations, will force current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status and could be widened to other colleges.

Harvard called the government's action "unlawful" and said it was "fully committed" to educating foreign students, of which Chinese nationals form the largest group at the elite Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"I think the Chinese community definitely feels like a more targeted entity compared to other groups," said Zhang, a 24-year-old studying for the PhD in physics.

"Some friends gave me advice that I should try not to stay in my current accommodation if things escalate, because they think it's possible that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent can take you from your apartment," said Zhang, who did not give his first name for security reasons.

Zhang says many among Harvard's Chinese students are worried about their visa status and internship prospects though others believe the school is likely to win any legal battles.

The number of Chinese international students in the United States has dropped to about 277,000 in 2024 from a high of around 370,000 in 2019, driven partly by growing tension between the world's two biggest economies and heightened US government scrutiny of some Chinese students.

Chinese nationals made up a fifth of Harvard's foreign student intake in 2024, the university says.

"Our teachers have sent us an email saying the school is actively working hard on a response within the next 72 hours and aims to negotiate with the government," said Teresa, a Chinese postgraduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Her post on Friday on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu platform was titled "Harvard refugee".

The US action "will only damage the image and international credibility of the United States", China's foreign ministry said, while vowing to "firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests" of its students overseas.

Several Chinese "princelings", as the children of the elite in the ruling Communist Party are known, have attended Harvard over the past two decades, including President Xi Jinping's daughter, Xi Mingze.

In recent years, however, Xi's anti-corruption campaign has stepped up scrutiny of Communist Party officials and their families' ties to Western countries, including assets stashed overseas and children attending prestigious US universities.

Cancelled flights

Zhang Kaiqi, a master's student in public health, had packed his luggage and souvenirs ready for a Friday flight back to China. But upon hearing the news, he urgently cancelled the expensive flight, losing his internship at a US NGO in China.

"I was sad and irritated. For a moment I thought it was fake news," the 21-year-old said.

The most anxious among the Chinese students at Harvard are those with summer jobs as research assistants tied to their visa status, crucial for future PhD applications, he said.

As others digested Thursday's order, two Chinese students said they were added to WhatsApp groups in which panicked foreign students were frantically sharing legal advice on their immigration status.

One provided a transcript from such a chat group that showed a lawyer advising students not to leave the country or use domestic air travel, and wait for official announcements from the school.

Thursday's move was a response to Harvard's refusal to provide information it sought about foreign student visa holders and could be reversed if the university relents, the Trump administration has said.

Life plans

As tension has ramped up in recent years between China and the United States, Chinese families have increasingly sent their children to study at universities in other English-speaking countries, such as Australia and Singapore.

On Friday, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said it would provide "unconditional offers, streamlined admission procedures, and academic support to facilitate a seamless transition" for affected students.

Pippa Ebel, an independent education consultant in the southern city of Guangzhou, said while the order did not entirely shut the door to US higher education, it was "likely to be a final nudge towards other destinations".

"It's not going to be a complete turnaround, but a hardening of Chinese parents' existing concerns," said Ebel, who authored a report on Chinese students for British education think tank HEPI.

Incoming Harvard master's student Zhao, 23, is determined to continue her studies in the United States, but is considering deferring her enrolment by a year or transferring elsewhere if the ban continues.

"It's really disturbed my life plans ... I had originally planned to apply for my US visa in early June, and now I'm not sure what to do," she said, withholding her first name for privacy reasons.