US to shorten length of Chinese visas amid concerns over intellectual property theft

The change comes at a time of trade negotiations between the two economic giants

US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping. The US is starting to clamp down on Chinese citizens' visas amid neogtiations about bilateral trade and North Korea (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s administration has plans to crack down on certain visas issued to Chinese citizens.

The State Department announced the changes, to go into effect on 11 June, are an attempt to curtail alleged theft of US intellectual property.

US consular officers can begin limiting the length of visas as opposed to issuing them for the maximum length as has been done. Application procedures will not change, however.

Chinese graduate students will specifically be limited to one-year visas if they are studying in US for robotics, aviation, and other high-tech manufacturing fields. These are the same fields China noted were priorities as part of its “Made in China” 2025 manufacturing plan.

Researchers will also face more restrictions in the form of needing approval from several US agencies if the companies are on a list of entities requiring higher scrutiny, maintained by the Department of Commerce. Those applications could take months to approve, one official told the Associated Press.

No other specifics were provided by the State Department, particularly regarding which agencies will need to approve the visas.

The visa announcement comes at a time when US-China relations are experiencing nearly weekly ups and downs.

Yesterday, the administration renewed threats to place 25 per cent tariffs on $50bn of Chinese goods, in retaliation for what his administration says are China's unfair trade practices like dumping lower-priced goods in the US market and making it harder for American manufacturers to compete.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump had vowed to get Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE “back into business” and save its jobs after it was blacklisted by the Commerce department. The company had admitted to lying about selling products containing American parts to North Korea and Iran, in direct violation of US sanctions.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House adviser, just had several trademarks approved by the Chinese government for her personal businesses which though run by a trust, she still profits from.

Mr Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping are also seemingly in a tense relationship over North Korea, which relies on ally China for essential trade and goods. The US president is still set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss the latter’s denuclearisation next month in Singapore.