Billy Galipeault

This bill sets a dangerous precedent and could only escalate tensions with the PRC, a nation that has a radical government but does not mean every Chinese person looking to study in America and specifically New Hampshire are terrorists, communists, or broadly "pose a presumptive risk of hostile action through asymmetric warfare perpetrated by the Chinese communist government against the United States of America, and an existential threat to New Hampshire and its citizenry, including through espionage, intellectual property theft, technology transfer, and chemical, biological and cyber terrorism and warfare via affiliation with higher education institutions." Not only is this bill vilifying an entire population, but it is fear mongering against Chinese people. If it passed, the current students that would need to "voluntarily withdraw" from NH universities will be stranded with no explanation besides "my government hates your government". This treatment of Chinese students and the assumption of their terroristic allegiance to their home country is simple profiling and congers memories of the Jewish limits in universities in the early 1900s, or even worse - the Chinese exclusion act. Worst of all, section V. on page 2 would enable citizens to potentially spy on or provide false information on Chinese people in NH for a monetary benefit - something that also sets a strong and irreversible precedent as well as enables weaponized xenophobia. While tensions are high, it can seem easy to believe you are doing a good thing because you are told China is your "enemy" but the reality is, it is not as simple as this and blanket laws that assume guilt and not presume innocence are how we ended up having Japanese internment camps within the US... In actuality the amount of students that simply want an American education should not be limited, and this bill is a slippery slope to eventually banning any or all foreign students - which is the opposite of what we want in our diverse and equal opportunity schools. Please do not pass this bill, thank you.