"The US has unreasonably cancelled Chinese students' visas under the pretext of ideology and national rights," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. "China firmly opposes this and has lodged representations with the US."

President Donald Trump's administration vowed a day earlier to revoke the visas of Chinese students, one of the largest sources of revenue for US universities.

Rubio said the United States would "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields".

"We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong," he said.

Young Chinese people have long been crucial to US universities, which rely on international students paying full tuition.

China's foreign ministry hit back at the move, with Mao saying it had "seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupted the normal cultural exchanges between the two countries".

"This political and discriminatory practice of the US has exposed the lies of the so-called freedom and openness that the US has always advertised, and further damaged the US's own international image, national image and national credibility," she said.