'Trump should deport Xi's daughter': As US-China trade war escalates, MAGA calls for crackdown on Chinese students

A full-scale trade war trade war with China and the US is in prospect after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs of more than 100% on Chinese goods imports. China has said it will "fight to the end" rather than capitulate to what it sees as US coercion, and will hike its own tariffs on American goods from 34% to 84% in response to the White House's latest move.

At a time when trade tensions between US and China seem to escalate, supporters of Donald Trump have called for a crackdown on Chinese students studying in US universities. In recent weeks, several international university students have been taken by immigration agents or had their legal status questioned. The Trump administration has targeted students — both those with visas and those with permanent legal status — who protested the war in Gaza.

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MAGA pushes for crackdown on Chinese students

In the last few days, the Trump administration has intensified its crackdown on students linked to anti-Israel protests that rocked the campuses and universities last year. In March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US has revoked at least 300 foreign students' visas as part of President Donald Trump's effort to clamp down on pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses.

Trump administration is taking strict action against international students in the US who have expressed support for Palestinians. Reports suggest many students who didn't even have any connection to campus activism have lost their visas. Chinese students are caught in the crosshairs of the political conflict and fear being targeted over the tariff war.

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Amid the rising geopolitical tensions, far-right American activist Laura Loomer has stepped up her attack against China on social media platform X. She said Trump should deport Xi Jinping's daughter from the US.


"Wish we could start revoking Chinese student visas to teach China a lesson. Send them back," Loomer posted. Though Laura Loomer is majorly dismissed as a conspiracy theorist, she recently got several staff of the National Security Council fired.


"If Xi Jinping is going to play games with President Trump, then @realDonaldTrump should DEPORT Xi’s daughter, who’s studied at Harvard and lives in the US," Loomer wrote in a social media post.

Several years ago, reports surfaced suggesting that Xi Mingze, the only daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, had been living in the United States and studying at Harvard University. However, these claims were never officially confirmed.

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In 2022, former U.S. Representative and Republican leader Vicky Hartzler brought renewed attention to the matter while introducing the "Protecting Higher Education from the Chinese Communist Party Act." According to the reports, Xi Mingze first arrived in the U.S. in 2010 and enrolled at Harvard under a pseudonym, with few people aware of her presence until 2012. Unverified accounts later suggested that she returned to China but may have come back to the U.S. again in 2019.

Trump's crackdown on protestors

Trump officials have said they are making use of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the State Department to deport non-citizens who are "adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests" of the US.

The arrests are a part of Trump's pledge to combat what the administration has classified as antisemitism, which was written into an executive order in January. Since then, the White House has also revoked $400m (£308m) in Columbia funding over allegations the university failed to combat antisemitism on its campus, and threatened to do the same to other universities.