Trump says Chinese foreign students are all spies

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Chinese students graduate from Columbia University.

IN HIS CONTINUING war against people of color, Donald Trump lashed out at Chinese students in the the U.S. by calling them spies.

During a dinner with 15 CEOs and senior White House staff, talking about an unnamed country that was clearly China according to a source in attendance, Trump said “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy.”

"Chinese students bring value to American campuses through the diversity of their experiences and perspectives," responded the United Chinese Americans in a statement. "They also contribute an estimated $12 billion annually directly to U.S. institutions of higher learning. And they provide much-needed talent on which American high-tech industries and its research and academic institutions have come to rely."

The UCA is a nationwide nonprofit and nonpartisan federation and a community civic movement dedicated to enriching and empowering Chinese American communities.

"Recent reported remarks by President Trump, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Senator Marco Rubio, who has characterized persons of Chinese origin in the United States as a national security threat, are unjustified and deeply offensive," the UCA statement continued. "The United Chinese Americans calls on the White House to clarify the President's reported disparagement of Chinese students."

The closed-door dinner with the CEOs was held at Trump's private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey where he has been spending a 10-day "working" vacation.

The comment came during a discussion during in which Trump expressed frustration against the Chinese which retaliate against the U.S. after Trump imposed tariffs on goods from China. That retaliatory action has angered and surprised Trump, according to Politico.

Although Trump is said to be planning further tarrifs, the Chinese government said it won’t back down when it comes to a trade war started by the U.S.

There are more than 350,000 Chinese students studying at U.S. universities -- the largest group of international students by far -- and Chinese students earned about 10 percent of all doctorates awarded by American universities in 2016.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said in a statement she was "outraged" that the president would "paint an entire ethnic group as spies."

"National security concerns must be taken seriously, but with his words, the president slanders whole groups of people, potentially causing harm to those who've done no wrong," Chu said in a written statement provided to Inside Higher Ed. "His careless words feed into stereotypes that endanger Chinese and Asian American students. 

"Our own economic future could be at risk as these actions discourage these students from entering STEM fields for fear they’ll be targeted for the crime of studying while Asian," Chu's statement continued. 

"We’ve seen where this kind of prejudice can lead, including the cases of Chinese American scientists Sherry Chen and Professor Xioxing Xi, whose lives were upended when they were wrongfully accused of being spies for China. Instead of slurring entire ethnic groups, the president should focus on actual solutions that make the whole country better off.”

"Generations of foreign policy leaders agree that international students and scholars are one of America’s greatest foreign policy assets," Jill Welch, deputy executive director for public policy of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers, said in a statement about what the president reportedly said. 

"Blanket generalizations about students from any country will undoubtedly make international students think twice before choosing the United States as their destination. If students, particularly from strategic regions around the world, no longer come here, America will lose the ability to build relationships with future leaders abroad and strengthen our own national security."

 "To make America more secure and welcoming to international students and scholars the president must avoid unwelcoming rhetoric and policies," said Welch. "We are already in a global competition for talent, and students around the world pay close attention to the policies and rhetoric emanating from the White House. In order to avoid a further chilling effect in the United States, it is incumbent upon policy leaders to act boldly and decisively to let students know that they are welcome here and that we value their contributions."

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