ISTANBUL

Beijing on Thursday slammed the US move to revoke visas of Chinese students, calling it “unreasonable and discriminatory.”

“The US’ unreasonable decision to revoke the visas of Chinese students under the pretext of ideology and national security seriously harms the lawful rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupts people-to-people exchange between us,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.

China’s reaction came in the wake of an announcement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the State Department will begin revoking visas of Chinese students.

“Under President (Donald) Trump’s leadership, the US State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio said in a statement.

“China firmly rejects and has lodged protest with the US side,” Mao told a live-streamed news conference in the Chinese capital.

“Such a politicized and discriminatory move lays bare the US lie that it upholds the so-called freedom and openness, and will only further undermine its image in the world and its national reputation,” said Mao.

Rubio also said the US will also “revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong."