Winnie, a postgraduate hopeful from Sichuan province in China, had her eyes set on moving to the United States this year to study computer science at the school of her dreams.

But that dream is now likely to go up in smoke as relations between the U.S. and China have nosedived to one of the lowest points in decades.

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I were just born later in life,” said Winnie (not her real name), who described herself as a “sacrifice” of the China-U.S. conflict.

Winnie, in her mid-twenties, said she has not been able to apply for an F-1 student visa for several months as her appointment at the U.S. consulate kept getting canceled.

The U.S. Department of State this week revoked visas for more than 1,000 Chinese students and researchers, citing security risks. More than 360,000 Chinese nationals studied in the U.S. in the 2018-19 academic year, accounting for one-third of all international students that year, according to the Institute of International Education.

Earlier in July, Beijing ordered the U.S. embassy in Winnie’s hometown of Chengdu to close in a tit-for-tat move, after Washington had shut down China’s consulate in Houston over espionage allegations.

Since then, Winnie was instead forced to apply for a visa at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou province, but never succeeded in making an appointment. The consulate was either always closed because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, or she was not given any reasons for the cancelations, she said.

Students who had their visas revoked were planning to major in subjects such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics, she said, citing posts from an online forum.

Visas were also canceled for those students from seven Chinese universities — Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Nanjing University of Science and Technology.

Winnie said Chinese students had found alternative ways to secure U.S. visas through other countries.

One post from an online forum said Chinese students had flown to Phnom Penh in Cambodia for a visa interview at the local U.S. embassy there. After paying an agent US$3,000 for insurance and as a deposit, students also had to complete mandatory quarantine for 14 days at a hotel.

Winnie said she had wanted to experience life abroad for herself, but now has no choice but to apply for a deferral at her school as she did not want to take online classes. If unsuccessful, she said she might have to apply to study elsewhere, such as Canada, or find work at a foreign company in China.

“Life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to, so maybe I’ll just have to go another direction,” she said.

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