-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US welcomes cultural programs that are "reciprocal and fair", but "one-way programs such as these are not mutually beneficial".
Pompeo's statement added: "The United States welcomes the reciprocal and fair exchange of cultural programs with PRC officials and the Chinese people, but one-way programs such as these are not mutually beneficial".
There has not yet been any official response from the Chinese side. Attempts to reach representatives for the programs singled out by the State Department were not immediately successful.
China's foreign ministry denounced the move.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced new visa restrictions on Chinese officials who have engaged in a variety of activities, from physical violence to espionage, to exert influence outside of China's borders.
Chinese citizens would be denied a visa to enter the United States if they have taken part in United Front efforts using violence, threats or other means of pressure against overseas Chinese communities, academics or civil society groups in the USA or elsewhere to advance the "CCP's authoritarian narratives and policy preferences", the State Department said in a separate statement on the measure.
Previously, party members, like other Chinese citizens, could obtain visitor visas for the United States of up to 10 years in duration.
The researchers were already targeting personnel of the incoming administration of president-elect Joe Biden, as well as "people close" to Mr Biden's team, according to William Evanina, chief of the counterintelligence branch of the office of the US Director of National Intelligence.
"In prior administrations, the norm has been to avoid taking such actions during a presidential transition, but the Trump administration has long set a pattern of bucking the norm". The intelligence is clear.
Beijing hit back angrily on Friday.
At a regular press briefing on Friday, China's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said the article was "just a sensational headline".
"We hope the United States will denounce the narrow-minded, extreme thinking and stop regarding everyone as spies", Ms Hua said.
Relations between China's President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump have slumped in recent months.
The Trump administration has sought to cement the outgoing president's tough-on-China legacy, and relations between the world's two largest economies have sunk to their lowest point in decades. "Many of China's major public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party".
