President Donald Trump said Monday the United States will issue visas for as many as 600,000 Chinese nationals to study at American colleges, calling the influx “very important” for relations with Beijing and for the domestic higher-education sector. The figure would more than double the roughly 277,000 Chinese students enrolled during the 2023–24 academic year, representing a sharp departure from earlier administration signals that student visas from China could face tighter scrutiny on national-security grounds. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the plan in a Fox News interview, arguing that tuition from Chinese students keeps many campuses solvent and that, without it, “the bottom 15 percent of universities would go out of business.” Lutnick said the administration also intends to overhaul the H-1B work-visa system and press universities to share equity with taxpayers on the roughly $200 billion in federally funded research they conduct. The proposal prompted criticism from conservative commentators who question whether the expanded visas square with the president’s “America First” pledge.