President Donald Trump said at the White House on Monday that the United States will issue visas for up to 600,000 Chinese students, framing the pledge as part of broader trade discussions with Beijing. “We’re going to allow it. It’s very important,” he told reporters before a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, adding that Washington still intends to “get along” with China despite heightened tariffs on Chinese goods. Allowing 600,000 students would more than double the roughly 270,000 Chinese nationals enrolled at U.S. colleges in the 2023-24 academic year. The announcement also comes less than three months after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration would tighten scrutiny of applicants and, on 18 Aug., disclosed that about 6,000 Chinese student visas had been revoked. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the policy in a Fox News interview, arguing that without the tuition revenue from Chinese students “the bottom 15 percent of universities and colleges would go out of business.” Conservative commentators have questioned how the expansion squares with the administration’s national-security concerns and its push to reduce U.S. reliance on China. The White House has not detailed when the larger quota would take effect or whether additional vetting measures will accompany the increase.