Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Sep 05, 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
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
Pickles are the latest craze among Generation Z in the United States.
Deadline Day Delivers Record £125m Isak Move and Donnarumma to City
Nestlé Removes CEO Laurent Freixe Following Undisclosed Relationship with Subordinate
Giuliani Seriously Injured in Accident – Trump to Award Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom
EU is getting aggressive: Four AfD Candidates Die Unexpectedly Ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia Local Elections
Lula and Putin Hold Strategic BRICS Discussions Ahead of Trump–Putin Summit
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
×