Trump administration targets China on three fronts with new travel and security restrictions

The Trump administration has moved against China on three fronts in a week ending visafree travel for Chinese visitors to a US Pacific territory blacklisting Chinas leading genomics firms over forced labour and designating Chinesefunded campus centres a national security threatThe Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday added three related Chinese companies BGI Genomics MGI Tech and Shenzhen BGI Technology also known as BGI Group to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act UFLPA Entity ListEffective October 29 US Customs and Border Protection will apply a rebuttable presumption that goods produced by these three entities are prohibited from entering the United States DHS saidThe department said the US government has reasonable cause to believe based on specific and articulable information that BGI Genomics conducts genetic testing in the XUAR alongside the government of the XUAR and as a part of its government initiatives It said such testing is utilised to facilitate the recruitment transport transfer harbouring or receiving of forced labourSeparately a DHS notice published in the Federal Register on October 27 suspends the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program which allowed prescreened Chinese nationals to visit the islands without a visa The suspension takes effect at 2 pm EDT on October 30 and covers existing authorisationsDHS judges that PRC nationals are almost certainly exploiting EVSTAP the notice said citing risks of espionage near military facilities on Tinian and Guam smuggling to Guam and birth tourism More than 3000 Chinese nationals used the programme in fiscal year 2025Earlier Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon had designated Confucius Institutes Chinesefunded cultural centres at universities as a threat to US national securityIt turns out that 80 new propaganda cells across 30 universities had popped up using different names and different charters but with the same mission to steal intellectual property and to infiltrate the minds of American students Hegseth said in a videoHe said the department had over the past two months systematically dismantled every single one of these organisations The Pentagon said on October 19 that research security audits at 30 universities had resulted in more than 80 terminationrelated actions according to VOAChinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing opposed smears and stigmatisation targeting Confucius Institutes VOA reported The actions come as Trump said a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on nuclear weapons had been scheduledThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever