Yurong “Luanna” Jiang is the first Chinese woman selected to be the student speaker at a Harvard graduation ceremony.
Her emotional speech on Thursday was delivered on the same day that a federal judge blocked a Department of Homeland Security order seeking to prevent the Ivy League university from enrolling international students.
The US State Department announced last week that it would intensify screening and “aggressively” revoke student visas for Chinese nationals, including “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”.
The move is widely believed to stem from Washington’s long-standing concerns that Chinese students enrolled in advanced science and engineering programmes could be involved in espionage activities that bolster Beijing’s military capabilities, posing a significant national security threat.
