Chinese students in US tell of ‘chilling’ interrogations and deportations

As tensions with China rise, scientists at America's leading universities complain of stalled research after crackdown at airports

Stopped at the border, interrogated on national security grounds, laptops and mobile phones checked, held for several hours, plans for future research shattered.

Many western scholars are nervous about travelling to China in the current political climate. But lately it is Chinese researchers working at US universities who are increasingly reporting interrogations - and in several cases deportations - at US airports, despite holding valid work or study visas for scientific research.