China's Ministry of Education has issued an alert for studying abroad on Monday afternoon, saying some students suffered visa restrictions from the US. Wu Guoxiu reports.

It's the Chinese Education Ministry's first overseas study alert for this year.

XU MEI, SPOKESPERSON CHINESE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION "For a certain period, visas of Chinese students studying in the US suffered restrictions, with longer approval period, shorter validity period and increasing refusal rates, bringing impacts for them to study or complete study in the US. The Ministry of Education reminds students and scholars to strengthen evaluation before studying abroad, increasing self-protection awareness and get preparations accordingly."

WU GUOXIU BEIJING "The Ministry of Education says what the US did recently on visa restrictions has harmed Chinese students' dignity, complicating China-US education communication."

XU YONGJI, DEPUTY DIRECTOR INTN'L COOPERATION & COMMUNICATION DEPT., MINISTRY OF EDUCATION "In 2018, China planned to send 10,313 people for government-sponsored study in the US, 331 couldn't go for visa reasons, that was 3.2 percent. In the first three months this year, that proportion was 13.5 percent. Since 2018, the US canceled or re-examined visa for Chinese people going to the US, in the name of counterspying, from natural science to social science background. Recently, they canceled 10-year-visa for a group of Chinese scholars in China-US relations."

The officials say US universities, however, remained an open and welcome attitude towards Chinese students.

XU MEI, SPOKESPERSON CHINESE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION "President of Harvard says China and the US universities should strengthen cooperation and communication which is very important to bilateral relations. American universities remain an open attitude towards cooperation with China."

The officials quoted figures from the US that China is the largest source of international students for the US. Between 2017 and 2018, 363 thousand Chinese students registered in the US, one-third of its total international students. In 2017, Chinese students brought in 13.9 billion US dollars of revenue for the country. They stress that China supports education communication, but that should be based on mutual respect. Wu Guoxiu, CGTN, Beijing.