A survivor of Mao’s China said she is concerned about President Donald Trump’s proposal to admit 600,000 Chinese students to U.S. colleges and universities.
"I'm just really baffled by this decision," Xi Van Fleet, who survived Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, told Fox News Digital.
On Aug. 25, Trump announced that 600,000 Chinese college students would be allowed into the country. Trump's comments came amid tense trade negotiations between the United States and China. The announcement was met with bewilderment and criticism from some of Trump's supporters.
"Really, we want more money and then allow them to come here and have access to our technology and turn it against us, I just don't get it," Van Fleet said. "I'm really, really disappointed. And maybe Trump has some very good reasons. At least right now, I haven't heard it."
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Van Fleet, who fled China at age 26 for the United States, said she is concerned about the repercussions of admitting 600,000 Chinese students.
"Whoever can come, they are the children of the elite, and they are the real danger," she said.
When reached for comment, the White House referred Fox News Digital to a previous statement.
"President Trump isn't proposing an increase in student visas for Chinese students. The 600k references two years' worth of visas. It's simply a continuation of existing policy," a White House official said.
Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, said the two-year reference "doesn't make sense" because foreign students stay for four-year degrees.
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the plan last week on "The Ingraham Angle," saying it was in the country’s economic interest.
"The president’s point of view is that what would happen if you didn’t have those 600K students is that you’d empty them from the top, all the students would go up to better schools, and the bottom 15% of universities and colleges would go out of business in America," he said. "He’s taking a rational economic view, which is classic Donald Trump."
However, Van Fleet said she isn't convinced.
"It is not convincing," Van Fleet said. "And also I have to tell you that there won't be 600,000 students coming to America because China is running out of money, actively out of money. The middle class has been erased so quickly that many of them just all of the sudden found themselves bankrupt. The real estate now is the bubble that is bursting, and you won't see a lot of students coming to America, even if you allow and encourage them, because the money is not there."
When asked what she would want to say to Trump, she said the president should not allow Chinese students to study "important fields" but could allow them to study the humanities.
"I think it's a great idea to let them come here to study humanity, social science," she said. "I don't even care if they study women's studies, study African studies to go back home and spread the woke, undermining the CCP, but they won't."