As tensions with China rise, scientists at America’s leading universities complain of stalled research after crackdown at airports

Stopped at the border, interrogated on national security grounds, laptops and mobile phones checked, held for several hours, plans for future research shattered. ⠀

Earlier this month the Chinese embassy in Washington said more than 70 students “with legal and valid materials” had been deported from the US since July 2021, with more than 10 cases since November 2023. The embassy said it had complained to the US authorities about each case. ⠀

“The impact is huge,” says Qin Yan, a professor of pathology at Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, who says that he is aware of more than a dozen Chinese students from Yale and other universities who have been rejected by the US in recent months, despite holding valid visas. Experiments have stalled, and there is a “chilling effect” for the next generation of Chinese scientists. ⠀

The refusals appear to be linked to a 2020 US rule that barred Chinese postgraduate students with links to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy”, which aims to leverage civilian infrastructure to support military development. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute thinktank estimates that 95 civilian universities in China have links to the defence sector.

Nearly 2,000 visas applications were rejected on that basis in 2021. But now people who pass the security checks necessary to be granted a visa by the State Department are being turned away at the border by CBP, a different branch of government.

“It is very hard for a CBP officer to really evaluate the risk of espionage,” said Dan Berger, an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts, who represents a graduate student at Yale who, midway through her PhD, was sent back from Washington’s Dulles airport in December, and banned from re-entering the US for five years. ⠀

Academics say that scrutiny has widened to different fields – particularly medical sciences – with the reasons for the refusals not made clear.

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  • Arelin@lemmy.zip
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    7 months ago

    Lmao liberals getting mad at (in this case non-existent) “violations” of laws that only exist to protect the capitalist class is always funny

    Intellectual property shouldn’t exist in the first place; it kills millions of people every year from patented drugs, etc. and it did so in Africa during covid.

    • Rinox@feddit.it
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      7 months ago

      While I agree that intellectual property has been abused over and over, especially in the last two decades, we need to remember the reason why patents became a thing, and that reason was to promote open research and cooperation.

      Without patents the only tool businesses had to protect and exploit their inventions and discoveries was secrecy, which creates a terrible environment for research, full of espionage and subterfuge and without a library of human inventions and research ready for anyone to take and build upon.

      It’s somewhat of a necessary evil, a carrot in order to incentivize businesses and individuals to share their research and their inventions, instead of keeping them to themselves in fear of someone else stealing them. It does have issues though, especially regarding the lack of a “fair” use of the monopoly the patent grants for it’s duration.

      And, again, I’m talking about patents. Copyright is a whole other can of worms, way worse in some ways.

    • MxM111@kbin.social
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      7 months ago

      Those drugs wouldn’t be developed in the first place, if there were no IP. The system is not ideal, but I would rather address its issues than destroy everything completely. When hous is on fire, the right thing is put out the fire, not to destroy the town.

      • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
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        7 months ago

        Cuba literally developed vaccines without IP nonsense, your argument kinda rings hollow

        • MxM111@kbin.social
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          7 months ago

          It is not impossible, but are you seriously want to compare pharmaceutical advancements of Cuba and US? You can even compare USSR and USA at the time. USSR medicine was significantly behind.

          • Match!!@pawb.social
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            7 months ago

            Cuba has 3% of the population of the US. I think it is fair to say they have disproportionately more medical advancement than expected for their population and wealth level.

            • MxM111@kbin.social
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              7 months ago

              I am not sure “advancement per person” is right metric - the more advances the much harder to make those. This is why I was suggesting to compare it to USSR - fair comparison.

            • MxM111@kbin.social
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              7 months ago

              Source? I would like to see how cuban pharmaceuticals are more advanced than that in US. Until you show concrete proof, I will say this is made up statement.

      • Arelin@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        When hous is on fire, the right thing is put out the fire

        The fire is the capitalist laws like IP; the “hous” is a country’s development. So yes, the fire should be put out.

      • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        and because they’re on an instance without downvotes they’re only going to see the 7 upvotes they did get. It’s 2024 why are people still buying into capitalist realism?? All the guys pushing for it have all moved on to pushing pedo-nazi shit you should be better than this.

          • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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            7 months ago

            People pushing for capitalist realism absolutely are, and usually the nazism comes secondary to the pedophilia with those types.

            Also, relevant meme:

            • wildncrazyguy@kbin.social
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              7 months ago

              Never said communism is bad, friend, just that it’s not a good idea to be consumed by any ideological framework - that’s how you become a zealot or worse, an enabler to someone who corrupts the cause.

      • hglman@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        People hate saving others, you really have to give them so many incentives to care. /S