Beijing, China - Beijing criticized the US decision to revoke the visas of Chinese students, saying on Thursday that it had lodged protests with Washington following Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement.

"The US has unreasonably canceled Chinese students' visas under the pretext of ideology and national rights," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a daily press conference on Thursday. "China firmly opposes this and has lodged representations with the US."

President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday vowed to revoke the visas of Chinese students, severing one of the largest sources of revenue for US universities and likely triggering mass deportations.

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

China Beijing slams video posted by US embassy in Singapore over South China Sea dispute

"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.

The Trump administration has not clarified the specific nature of the new rules or how they would be applied, instead opting to send a blanket threat directed at all Chinese citizens and students currently in the US.

The move will be hugely damaging to US universities and colleges, as they have in recent decades increasingly relied on the tuition fees of Chinese international students to boost their income.

According to Mao, Rubio's announcement "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.