The Fear Tariff: On Keeping People and Ideas Out

Rory Truex ’07, an associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, focuses his research and teaching on Chinese politics, specifically Chinese policymaking, public opinion and human rights. His research and commentary has been featured in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The South China Morning Post and other outlets. He recently launched The Civic Forum, a Substack newsletter and webinar/video podcast series about democracy and how to protect it. “Educating the public is particularly important in this moment,” he told Princeton Int’l. “Democracy is in recession worldwide; over 70% of the global population lives under authoritarian rule. Americans can learn from the experiences of other countries. “In academia, our research is so inward-focused,” Truex said. “We’re taught to research and publish, but we're not taught to communicate to the public. My hope is to bring the ideas of my field — China studies, authoritarian politics, comparative politics — to a broader audience.” The Civic Forum can be found on Substack, YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The following post, which we are reprinting in full, is from April 20, 2025.

I recently received an email from a colleague in Europe who had been planning on visiting our campus. The trip had been in the works for months, but he sent me a note indicating that he would no longer be visiting the United States. The risk of a trip to the States just wasn’t worth it, he said.

The sad irony is that I have written some version of that email myself many times in the past — to colleagues in China. Journalists, scholars and other foreigners face distinct risks when entering China, and many of us who conduct research on Chinese politics no longer feel comfortable going. We all know people who have been detained in China or turned around at the border, a “rare but real” phenomenon that can make travel there uncertain and unpleasant. 

I see this fear in my own international students. Many of them are not sure whether they can go home for the summer to see their families, lest they get shaken down at the border upon reentry or have their visas revoked while abroad. 

The Trump administration has created a security situation where foreigners no longer feel comfortable coming and going from our country. European citizens have faced harsh detention practices at the border, including a German traveler who spent 16 days locked up before being sent back to Germany. A French scientist claims they were turned away at the border because
they had messages critical of Trump on their phone. We are deporting Ph.D. students if they have speeding tickets. An article in The Guardian now provides guidance for Europeans traveling to the U.S. about how to properly wipe their phones before entry.
A growing list of countries — Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland — have issued travel warnings to their citizens about visiting the United States. 

And of course, noncitizens that are already in the United States confront an unprecedented level of fear and uncertainty. Attend the wrong protest, or have the wrong tattoo, and you can be whisked away by ICE, sent to a detention center in Louisiana
or El Salvador.

 Collectively, the Trump Administration’s practices amount to a “fear tariff.” Like the trade tariffs that dominate our news cycle, a “fear tariff” is meant to deter things from coming in. 

I see this fear in my own international students. Many of them are not sure whether they can go home for the summer to see their families, lest they get shaken down at the border upon reentry or have their visas revoked while abroad. Many universities are issuing warnings to international students and faculty to avoid travel. I’ve seen some that suggest students should not travel abroad if they have attended a Middle East protest or have talked about Palestine on social media. 

All of this is incredibly damaging to the mental health and well-being of our students, as well as the general health of U.S. universities and the broader scientific community. Some of my best Ph.D. students have already indicated to me that they will be looking for academic jobs outside of the United States, and I don’t blame them. Why would they stay in a country where they clearly aren’t wanted? 

I was at a conference last year sponsored by the Carter Center, with academics from both China and the United States in dialogue about how to rebuild scientific exchange between the two countries. There was a disquieting symmetry in the discussion. The American professors complained about the dangers of entering China, and the Chinese professors complained about their treatment in the United States. One had been subjected to secondary questioning at the border on that very trip. I remember one professor from China noted how American scholars needed to “be braver” and make the trip, as the Chinese
professors had done that time around. 

I appreciated the solidarity in the conference, but that comment irked me, as there seemed to be a false equivalence
underlying it. China lacks the rule of law, and at the time of the event, the Chinese government had recently detained and tortured two Canadian citizens for years in a spate of hostage diplomacy. Visitors to China do not enjoy standard political rights and can be subjected to arbitrary detention, just like Chinese citizens. Our Chinese colleagues may be taken for secondary questioning during their visits to the U.S., but they still had the rights and protections of a democracy and a well-functioning legal system. 

The Trump administration has done away with all that. Fear tariffs are a feature of the authoritarian world — places like China, Russia, North Korea create barriers to outsiders, deterring critical voices from entering. The American fear tariff is nowhere near the levels in those countries, but it is no longer zero. “I see this fear in my own international students. Many of them are not sure whether they can go home for the summer to see their families, lest they get shaken down at the border upon reentry or have their visas revoked while abroad.”