President Donald Trump says he will allow 600,000 Chinese nationals to enter the U.S. on student visas to help secure a trade deal with China. The announcement of his policy shift angered some of Trump’s closest allies, who questioned how the president’s new stance puts America first — a slogan he ran on.
Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office on Monday after a highly anticipated meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung that centered on golfing and easing tensions with North Korea.
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Trump noted that the U.S.-China relationship has improved, warranting a change in policy.
“It’s a different relationship that we have now with China,” Trump said. “It’s a much better relationship economically than it was before with Biden.”
Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.,wrote on X the students could have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“If refusing to allow these Chinese students to attend our schools causes 15% of them to fail then these schools should fail anyways because they are being propped up by the CCP,” Greene wrote.
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The Institute of International Education reported that 277,398 Chinese students studied in the U.S. in 2024. Only India, with 331,602 students in the U.S., had more.
Chinese student visas
Increasing the number of visas offered to Chinese students is a change from an earlier policy that Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in May.
Rubio said in May that the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security were working to revoke visas for Chinese students, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” The targeted visas affected students from China and Hong Kong.
According to the Institute of International Education, 277,398 Chinese students studied in the U.S. in 2024.
Several Republicans in Congress also introduced legislation in their respective chambers to stop the issuance of student visas to Chinese citizens. Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., said in a Friday, March 14, release that Chinese students don’t come to the U.S. for an education, but to spy on the military, steal intellectual property and threaten national security.
“Congress needs to end China’s exploitation of our student visa program,” Moore said. “It’s time we turn off the spigot and immediately ban all student visas going to Chinese nationals.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Laura Ingraham on Monday evening that Trump intends to use the students to save universities from closure. Lutnick added that 15% of schools would close without the 600,000 students, but Trump made no mention of how or if the visas would be distributed.
Still, allies like Laura Loomer criticized Trump’s plan in posts on her X account, claiming the students are “Chinese spies” who will replace Americans.
Magnets and airplane parts
Trump also said Monday that China had agreed to export rare-earth magnets for U.S. national security purposes, in exchange for permitting Boeing to produce airplane parts for China.
“Two hundred of their planes were unable to fly because we weren’t giving them Boeing parts, purposely,” he said. “They weren’t giving us magnets, therefore we weren’t giving them.”
If China doesn’t comply, Trump said he would impose a 200% tariff on imports from the country. He signed an executive order on Monday, Aug. 11, writing on Truth Social that it suspended tariffs on China until November.
