Chinese science students tell of harassment, grilling by US border officials

Four Chinese students who traveled to the United States to study and participate in academic conferences have complained of being harassed, interrogated and repatriated by US immigration, according to a newspaper report.

All of the students have scientific and technical backgrounds and "two of them have interest in artificial intelligence research," the sources familiar with the matter told the China Daily on condition of anonymity.

US Customs and Border Protection officers took the four to a dark room for more than 10 hours of interrogation, according to the China Daily report.

The officers asked about their personal information and family, their studies and internships in the US, whether they were members of the Communist Party of China and whether they had cooperated with the Chinese government.

They "paid particular attention to political backgrounds such as CPC membership and scientific research backgrounds related to computers," the sources said.

Ultimately, US immigration arbitrarily seized the electronic gadgets from one student and repatriated the other three.

During their detention, two of the students were forbidden from contacting their families and friends, with one cut off from outside contact for more than 30 hours, sources told the China Daily.

It is claimed that the US has conducted unwarranted harassment, interrogation and repatriation of more than 30 Chinese students majoring in computer-related fields in recent years. The vast majority of them are master's or doctoral degree candidates. More than half are PhD candidates and most are with well-known US universities.

Their research interests cover fields such as artificial intelligence, information science, network security, electronics, software engineering and electronic information engineering.

"These students were harassed and interrogated by the US for more than 10 hours upon entering the country, with the longest detention even up to 5 days, and ultimately, without exception, their visas were canceled and they were repatriated," the sources said.

The practices were "far beyond the realm of normal law enforcement, are strongly ideologically biased and not aimed at maintaining so-called 'national border security'," they added.

The purpose of such an approach is supposedly to hold back China's scientific and technological development and maintain US scientific and technological hegemony, which "fully reflects the hegemonic, bullying nature of the US side as well as its anxiety and lack of self-confidence in the realm of science and technology."

The incident will only give rise to a serious "chilling effect" inside and outside the US, poison public opinion on China-US relations and impede the mutual visits and exchange of talents between the two countries," the sources told China Daily. "Chinese students should assess the risk with great caution and think twice before going to the US to study."