“Then, just a couple of days ago, the State Department issued a statement saying it would be ”aggressively revoking” visas for Chinese students – and that dialled up the tension again, because I’m not only a Harvard international student, I’m also a Chinese student.” (See a timeline of events below.)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration would target Chinese students with links to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in “critical fields”.

Red under the bed?

There has been confusion about the details, but given Jiang is a Chinese passport holder (he was born in China but went to high school in New Zealand and married a Kiwi), the Herald has to ask: does he have any Communist Party ties? Is he a member?

“No,” he replies.

Jiang says there are usually two routes to a student joining the Communist Party. One is if they attend a university that is heavily associated with the party or the military – “the equivalent of West Point in the US,” he says. There are already policy restrictions on the graduates of those universities, he says, dating from the first Trump administration.

“The second way, which I think might be more prevalent, is when you’re in university, when you’re becoming an adult, you’re given the opportunity to join the party if you’re a high performer.”

Joining the party could mean you’re an ideologue, but a primary motivation for many is simply that it helps you get ahead in China.

“It opens up more doors for jobs in even in the public sector – and the private sector,” Jiang said.

He was never asked, by dint of the fact he did his undergraduate degree in Australia. The same will go for Chinese students who are doing their first degree at Harvard.

He can’t see how the crackdown would work on a logistical level for the State Department – already cut to the bone by Elon Musk’s Doge. There are some 300,000 Chinese students studying in the US. “How do you decipher who joined the party for political reasons and who for other reasons?” he asks. “It will be a very difficult thing to implement. It will cost taxpayers a lot of money.”

And some on the right are wary of a blanket ban.

“Anyone who cares about higher education should hope the White House drops the issue,” the Wall Street Journal said in an editorial earlier this week.

“Mumbai and Beijing – by way of Harvard and other elite schools – supply the talent that keeps our high-tech sector competitive. These are among the best minds in the world, and they want to live and work in America,” the Journal said.

“They boost employment and productivity. They generate wealth. Nothing is gained by forcing our leading universities to turn them away.”

While studying at Rangitoto College on Auckland’s North Shore – where he was valedictorian and dux – Jiang represented the high school at a “model UN” event, where he met King’s College pupil Jamie Beaton. The pair went on to form Crimson Education, a company that coaches secondary students who want to get into a top university. (It also offers tutoring and an online academy and is now making a push into brick-and-mortar schools, too.)

Crimson has grown to be a $1 billion company by private equity valuation and boasts the likes of former Australian Prime Minister and Labor leader Kevin Rudd, Sir John Key and former US Treasury Secretary (under Clinton) and Harvard president (2001-06) Larry Summers on its advisory board.

On May 22, via Homeland Security, the Trump administration revoked Harvard’s right to enrol foreign students – meaning they would have to transfer to another university to maintain their visa status.

President Donald Trump, who has been hounding the university over what he saw as lax efforts to clamp down on protests about the situation in Gaza and alleged anti-Semitism, said Harvard had refused to hand over the names of its foreign students. The university said Homeland Security already had that information through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System database it maintains on all offshore enrolments.

CNN reported “panic” on campus. “Countless international students have asked about transferring,” Harvard said in an emergency court filing.

The university prevailed in the initial court skirmishes, winning a temporary injunction within hours, which on Friday NZT was extended until a full court hearing. On the same day, the Trump administration put a 30-day pause on its foreign student ban.

It was better news for thousands of students (who make up about a quarter of Harvard’s roll) – and more so given it was graduation day.

“It’s a good initial win for Harvard,” Beaton told the Herald on Friday morning. “I’m on campus and people are very excited.”

The Crimson co-founder introduced the Herald to Nensy Tsyan, a Kiwi-Chinese-Russian student who went to Epsom Girls Grammar before studying for a law degree in Australia, then an MBA at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. This week, she graduated from Harvard with a Masters in Education.

“This was a special moment for me as a Kiwi, as I am the first in my family to graduate from university,” Tsyan said.

“It was inspiring to see Harvard’s president defiant in the face of Trump and the solidarity for international students like myself and other Kiwis.”

Trump’s war on Harvard continues on many fronts, however. The President has asked federal agencies to cancel contracts with the university, threatened to revoke its tax-free status and posted on social media earlier this week that he wants to shift US$3b ($5b) in federal research grants from the university to “TRADE SCHOOLS across the land!”

“Why cut off research funding?” Harvard President Alan Garber said on National Public Radio (AKA NPR, itself being defunded by the Trump administration).

“Sure it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country as well – because after all the funding is not a gift. It’s given to universities to carry out research that the federal Government designates high priority. It is work that they want done.”

Harvard – of which Beaton is a graduate – might be the Crown jewel, but the co-founder said: “Our students generally are applying to 12 to 15 US universities and thus have a wide range of options available to them.”

Earlier this year, Trump administration froze funding for Fulbright Scholarships, which have proved a route to Ivy League universities for New Zealand and other foreign students – including Rocket Lab alumna Felicity Powell last week.

The funding was unfrozen, but Rubio has been accused of interfering with academic freedom this week by blocking Fulbright applications deemed to have DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) or climate change themes.

Jiang – courts and politicians willing – will continue his Public Administration studies at Harvard, though with some time spent back in New Zealand soon too, as he joins Beaton for a stint of guest lecturing at Auckland University’s Business School.

The newly graduated Tsyan says: “I plan to work for one of the fashion houses in business and law. I will work in New York, most likely.”

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.