Free Republic

More than a quarter-million Chinese students attending college in the United States saw their futures plunged into uncertainty Wednesday when the Trump administration announced an aggressive crackdown on student visa holders from that country. With an estimated 277,398 students pursuing primarily undergraduate and graduate degrees, China ranks only behind India among foreign countries with the highest number of students attending college in the U.S., according to data from the Institute of International Education. Since China’s middle-class boom in the early aughts, its students have flocked to U.S. institutions, which in turn welcomed the enrollment boost and mostly unsubsidized tuition fees....

SYDNEY —China’s state-owned enterprises may be curbing investment in Australia is dropping as relations between the two countries deteriorate, but there are rising concerns that they may be stepping up community infiltration instead. Reports suggest that the Covid-19 crisis may have led to an upsurge in activity by agencies run by Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) such as the United Front, a body President Xi Jinping once referred to as his “magic weapon.” “The Chinese Communist Party is strengthening its influence by co-opting representatives of ethnic minority groups, religious movements, and business, science and political groups in China...