The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA has banned Chinese citizens with US visas from joining its programs amid security concern.
NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens told the news agency that NASA has restricted physical and cybersecurity access of Chinese citizens to NASA facilities, materials and networks to ensure the safety of their work.
According to a Bloomberg report, Chinese citizens were previously allowed to work as contractors or students participating in research, but not as staff. The move comes amid a surge in anti-China rhetoric under President Trump’s administration.
According to the news agency, the United States and China are competing to send crews to the moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States’s civil space program, aeronautics research and space research.
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