Rubio announces that the US Department of State will work with the Department of Homeland Security to "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party and students active in critical research fields.
"We will also change the criteria for visa applications in order to improve the screening of all future visa applications from China and Hong Kong," it says in a statement.
It is unclear how many people will be affected by the measures.
International students at educational institutions in the US, 270,000 people come from China, according to figures for the academic year 2023/2024. They make up a quarter of all foreign students on American soil. Only India has more students in the country.
China "strongly opposes" the American move, which has also been conveyed to the US, announces the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
"The US has revoked Chinese students' visas on unreasonable grounds, citing national rights," says spokesperson Mao Ning in a statement.
In recent times, the relationship between China and American educational institutions has come into focus in Washington DC. Earlier in May, Republicans in the House of Representatives, for example, pressured Duke University to cut ties with a Chinese university, citing that Chinese students were given access to state-funded research.
