Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced plans to crack down on Chinese holders of student visas and ramp up scrutiny of new visa applicants from China and Hong Kong, escalating the Trump administration’s confrontational approach to Beijing.

In a statement, Rubio said the State Department would work with the Department of Homeland Security to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students in the United States, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”. He did not specify which areas of study would be targeted.

Rubio also did not provide details about what additional measures the department would take to scrutinise new visa applicants.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration has sought to penalise US colleges and universities accused of violating the President’s executive orders on antisemitism and diversity by threatening to curtail the number of international students. The State Department previously moved to strip visas from some foreign students whom the administration has accused of leading pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.

Last week, the administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enrol foreign students and said thousands of enrolled students must transfer or leave the country, a move that has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

Trump told reporters that there should be a 15% cap on the number of foreign students that Harvard or other universities can admit relative to their overall enrolment.

During Trump’s first term, the Justice Department prosecuted scientific researchers and professors of Chinese descent at American universities, under a programme called the “China Initiative”, accusing them of taking money from the Chinese Government in exchange for providing sensitive research materials, a charge some of them denied.

The Biden administration continued to target academic researchers before ending the China Initiative in 2022, amid criticism that it was racially targeting Chinese Americans and others of Chinese descent.

There were 277,398 Chinese students at US universities last year, according to the Institute of International Education. This was down sharply from 372,532 in the 2019-2020 academic year, before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. India overtook China as the largest source of foreign students at American universities last year. The​ majority of students from India and China pursue studies in math, engineering, science and technology.

Asked before Rubio’s statement about the Trump administration’s moves to stop or slow the issuing of visas to foreign students, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing was closely following the issue.

“China believes that education cooperation and academic exchanges should not be disrupted,” she said at a news briefing in Beijing. “We urge the US to protect the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of all international students, including those from China.”

Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.