Although the solemn representation the Foreign Ministry has recently lodged against the United States for arbitrarily repatriating three Chinese students at the airport in Houston on Aug 15 might not change the discriminatory practice of the US administration, it exposes to the world how jittery Washington is because of its imaginary fears.

Despite the Chinese students having valid visas, they were cross-examined at the airport and suspected of having connections with the Chinese military because they received funding from the Chinese government or photos of them undergoing military training — a regular program for freshmen in Chinese universities — were found on their phones.

Such wanton harassment is only the latest incident involving the US' targeting of Chinese students, but it reveals the extent of the US' paranoia.

In the first place, government funding for education and research, which is universal the world over, including the US, does not necessarily make the individuals and entities receiving it a threat to other countries' national security. If so, the doors would be closed to almost all exchanges and cooperation across borders in education, research and engineering.

It is the US administration's shameless efforts to smear the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government and the Chinese military, and to trigger another Cold War, which most of the rest of the world rejects, that has emboldened the law enforcers at US airports to increase their prejudicial scrutiny of Chinese students.

The repatriation of the three students indicates the extent to which the Joe Biden administration is willing to manipulate the state machinery to serve the narrow ends of a few politicians is no less than that of its predecessor.

It runs counter to the US claim that it welcomes Chinese students and shows that the US is seeking to curtail normal people-to-people and cultural exchanges and education cooperation between the two sides.

Since China introduced reform and opening-up policies more than 40 years ago, the economic and trade cooperation, and the people-to-people exchanges in various fields between it and the US have flourished, and they benefited not only the two sides, but also the rest of the world.

The reason why the US administration chooses to turn a blind eye to that is its irrepressible anxiety that the US is losing its technological leadership advantages.

The US administration has said that it wants to put guardrails in place to prevent relations veering dangerously off course. But as its targeting of normal educational exchanges shows, it is the one that is busy demolishing the existing ones piece by piece.