‘Congress needs to end China’s exploitation of our student visa program,’ Rep. Riley Moore said.
A group of House Republicans on Friday introduced legislation to ban Chinese citizens from obtaining U.S. student visas, citing national security concerns associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Rep. Riley Moore (R-W. Va.), a first-term congressman who sits on the Appropriations Committee, led the “Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act of 2025,” or the “Stop CCP VISAs Act of 2025.”
“Every year we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security,” Moore said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
As an example, Moore pointed to the federal indictment of five Chinese nationals in October 2024, who were accused of misleading investigators about their trip to a remote military site in Michigan and conspiring to delete photos from their cellphones. At the time of the incident, the defendants were students at the University of Michigan as part of the university’s joint program with China-based Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
“Congress needs to end China’s exploitation of our student visa program. It’s time we turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas going to Chinese nationals,” Moore added.
The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to “prohibit the admission of Chinese nationals as nonimmigrant students, and for other purposes.”
It says that “an alien who is a national of the People’s Republic of China may not be issued a visa or otherwise provided status as a nonimmigrant … for the purpose of conducting research or pursuing a course of study.”
The bill is expected to affect visas issued for academic students, vocational students, and exchange visitors.
Cosponsors of the legislation include Reps. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), and Addison McDowell (R-N.C.).
“The Chinese Communist Party is fundamentally opposed to our American values, and yet we have handed out hundreds of thousands of student visas to Chinese nationals, many of whom are state-sponsored spies,” Gill said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
By Frank Fang and Eva Fu
