Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Jul 06, 2025

Visa clampdown shows Trump’s aim is for Americans to consider EVERYONE from China as ‘the enemy’

Visa clampdown shows Trump’s aim is for Americans to consider EVERYONE from China as ‘the enemy’

Washington’s latest assault on Beijing is to impose visa restrictions on Communist Party members. This concerted effort to dehumanise China is whipping up nationalist fervour in both countries and will have a lasting impact.

Before the Donald Trump administration, there were extensive ties between the American and Chinese people. Over 300,000 Chinese a year were studying in US universities, many Chinese aspired to top technology jobs in America, while millions more visited as tourists annually. Those days now seem very distant indeed.

Yesterday, the White House announced strict visa limitations on members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families who visit the United States, restricting them to a one-month, single entry for tourism. This isn’t an isolated incident; it comes as part of a broader crackdown against the party’s apparent ‘influence’ in the US, which has seen the administration recently cancel the visas of up to 1,000 students and raise paranoia about espionage.

It’s a big deal. The CCP is the world’s second largest political party, with over 91 million members (almost equivalent to the population of Vietnam), and when one considers what might constitute “family,” the number of people potentially affected by the US ruling easily expands into the hundreds of millions.

This isn’t about a secretive elite who rule China from a single room; it spans the country’s entire society. Yet now in America, to be associated with this party in any capacity is increasingly politically untenable, especially if one aspires to any kind of meaningful professional life in the US. Every member is being smeared as a potential spy, infiltrator and malign actor. It’s a paranoia that is breaking apart the ties between the people of these two countries and inciting nationalist indignation.

The CCP has become America’s new bogeyman. It’s portrayed in caricature terms by US politicians as a sinister organisation with ambitions for global domination, undermining America in the process.

Its depictions are largely shaped by longstanding cliches of the original Cold War, which are obsessed with ‘influence’, ‘espionage’ and ‘infiltration’. Figures such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly take aim at the party, frequently emphasising its apparent difference from what he describes as ‘the Chinese people,’ as if to imply that it is illegitimate and unwanted by the country’s population as a whole. The suggestion is that they are really looking for ‘American-style freedom’ to liberate them from their ‘oppressors’, as always. Thus, anyone who associates with this party is suspect.

Yet, this is an unhelpful, ideological and misleading picture. Those who are members of the CCP and their associations are not brainwashed robots who all think in unison and follow a grander scheme. They are human beings and, for that matter, individuals.

A party of such a size is quite obviously very diverse. It consists of people from many different backgrounds, professions, regions and consequentially, world views. A billionaire like Jack Ma, who is a party member, is unlikely to hold the same views or outlook as a rural cadre in Henan province. Yet to the US, these individuals are one and the same and are all unwanted by the ‘real Chinese people’.

As the Trump administration seeks to cement its legacy, part of its strategy is the deliberate and purposeful bulldozing of ‘human-to-human’ ties between the US and China, an intentional and unapologetic scaling down of engagement which aims to dehumanise the party and those associated with it.

Chinese students are no longer looked at as ambitious and hard-working young people who seek to learn from America’s world-class universities and who contribute to the economy. First and foremost, they must be considered as potential spies who are obsessed with stealing technology and put the CCP before everything.

By repeatedly demonising the party and creating disincentives to join and participate, the Trump administration, powered by the logic of individuals such as Pompeo, believes it can weaken the legitimacy of the party. However, this is a miscalculation. The prior assumption that the party is illegitimate underscores the actual support for it in China, and in turn fails to appreciate the fact that waging hostility against the country encourages nationalism.

On Thursday night on Twitter, things got extremely heated. Following in the footsteps of Zhao Lijian’s provocative tweet directed at Australia, China Daily Bureau Chief Chen Weihua used a profane insult against US Senator Marsha Blackburn for a tweet which was, for all intentions and purposes, racist.


It’s easy to try and dismiss this kind of thing, irrespective of its appropriateness, as a state- orchestrated stunt. But in practice it’s more endemic of the growing anger and frustration the Chinese are feeling in this climate against America.

Ultimately, ‘human-to-human’ ties between the US and China are unravelling at an alarming pace, and this is absolutely the intention of the Trump administration. The attempt to demonise a country and a ruling party that spans to nearly 100 million people has a profound impact.

It’s creating a toxic culture of McCarthyism, racism and fearmongering in America, while back in China it is causing popular anger, indignation and growing impatience to the point that insults against US politicians are not condemned, but widely celebrated. Instead of these two countries engaging and learning with each other, we are accelerating into a downward spiral of mutual suspicion which will have far deeper implications than the original Cold War.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Political Dispute Escalates Between Trump and Musk
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
US Senate Votes to Remove AI Regulation Moratorium from Domestic Policy Bill
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
Jury Deliberations in Diddy Trial Yield Partial Verdict in Serious Criminal Charges
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
King Charles Plans Significant Role for Prince Harry in Coronation
Two Chinese Nationals Arrested for Espionage Activities Against U.S. Navy
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
×