Restricting Higgs bundles to curves

We determine some classes of varieties X - that include the varieties with numerically effective tangent bundle - satisfying the following property: if E is a Higgs bundle such that f*E is semistable for any morphism f from a smooth projective curve to X, then E is slope semistable and the discriminant of E is zero in H4(X,R). We also characterize some classes of varieties such that the underlying vector bundle of a slope semistable Higgs bundle is always slope semistable.