Why is the Trump administration targeting Chinese students?

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US will "aggressively revoke" visas from Chinese students, "including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields." In his announcement on China, Rubio said the government will also "revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications" from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. This comes on the back of threats to limit the number of international students studying in American universities. Why are Chinese students particularly targeted? Are they the easy target in the ongoing feud between the White House and elite universities? How is this impacting the lives of young Chinese students?