Chinese students find themselves caught in the US-China crossfire - again

Xiao Chen turned up at the US Consulate in Shanghai on Thursday morning, hours after Washington announced that it would "aggressively" revoke the visas of Chinese students.

The 22-year-old had a visa appointment: she was headed to Michigan in the autumn to study communications.

After a "pleasant" conversation, she was told her application had been rejected. She was not given a reason.

"I feel like a drifting duckweed tossed in wind and storm," she said, using a common Chinese expression used to describe feeling both uncertain and helpless.

She had been hopeful because she already had the acceptance letter. And she thought she had narrowly escaped the bombshells in recent days.

First, Donald Trump's administration moved to end Harvard University's ability to enrol international students, a move that has since been blocked in court. And then it said it had stopped visa appointments for all foreign students.

But now, Chen is ready for plan B. "If I can't get the visa eventually, I'll probably take a gap year. Then I'll wait to see if things will get better next year."

A valid visa may still not be enough, she adds, because students with visas could be "stopped at the airport and deported".

The suspicion of foreigners as the US and China pull further away from each other is a surprising turn for many Chinese people who remember growing up in a very different country.

Zhang Ni, who also did not want to use her real name, says she was "very shocked" by Ms Dong's remarks.

The 24-year-old is a recent journalism graduate from Columbia University in New York. She says she "doesn't care about working at Gree", but what surprised her was the shift in attitudes.

That so many Chinese companies "don't like anything that might be associated with the international" is a huge contrast from what Ms Zhang grew up with - a childhood "filled with [conversations centred on] the Olympics and World Expo".

"Whenever we saw foreigners, my mom would push me to go talk to them to practice my English," she says.

That willingness to exchange ideas and learn from the outside world appears to be waning in China, according to many.

And America, once a place that drew so many young Chinese people, is no longer that welcoming.

Looking back, Ms Zhang can't help but recall a joke her friend made at a farewell dinner before she left for the US.

Then a flippant comment, it now sums up the fear in both Washington and Beijing: "Don't become a spy."