import pandas as pd
>>> df
country
0 US
1 UK
2 Germany
3 China
>>> countries_to_keep
['UK', 'China']
>>> df.country.isin(countries_to_keep)
0 False
1 True
2 False
3 True
Name: country, dtype: bool
>>> df[df.country.isin(countries_to_keep)]
country
1 UK
3 China
>>> df[~df.country.isin(countries_to_keep)]
country
0 US
2 Germany