BEIJING -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday said people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and the United States should not be politicized and unreasonably restricted.

"China always believes that personnel exchange forms the basis for exchanges and cooperation between China and the US in various fields," Lu Kang said at a press briefing when asked to comment on a recent statement of President of Yale University Peter Salovey.

In the statement, Salovey affirmed Yale's "steadfast commitment" to its international students and scholars, stressing they were "welcome and respected on our campus." He added that openness was "a key to the extraordinary success of America's great research universities" and "must remain a hallmark of Yale."

Lu said not only Yale, some other US universities including Stanford and UC Berkeley had released statements to express support to international students and scholars including those from China.

President of Harvard University Lawrence Bacow said in March that maintaining and deepening exchanges and cooperation between the two countries' education and cultural institutions is crucial to promoting US-China relations in the long run, and that Harvard will continue to promote exchanges and cooperation with Chinese educational and scientific research institutions, according to Lu.

The spokesman also mentioned US President Donald Trump's remarks last December in Argentina, who said Chinese students were welcome to study in the United States.

"However, some US departments and institutions have made unreasonable and unscrupulous restrictions on normal personnel exchange between the two countries since the beginning of this year, which have caused widespread concern and seriously disturbed bilateral cooperation," Lu said.

"We hope that relevant departments of the US government can return to rationality, respect public opinions and do more to promote mutual understanding and friendship between Chinese and US people," he said.