President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would permit 600,000 Chinese students to study at American universities, a sharp pivot from his administration’s earlier stance on tightening visa restrictions for this student cohort. The 600,000 figure is also more than double the number of Chinese students studying in this country in 2023-2024.
“We are going to allow it,” Trump said during a White House meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, according to an Associated Press story. “It’s very important—600,000 students.”
Trump reiterated this sentiment during a Cabinet meeting the next day, saying that Chinese students help keep U.S. colleges and universities financially afloat, according to the AP story.
“I told (Chinese) President Xi that we’re honored to have their students here,” Trump said. “Now, with that, we check and we’re careful, we see who is there.”
Welcoming Stance Contrasts With Rubio’s Statement in May
This stance on allowing such a large number of Chinese students to enroll at American colleges and universities is a significant shift from the administration’s earlier position on this group of students. In May, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced the U.S. would start “aggressively” revoking the visas of Chinese students with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or those pursuing study in sensitive academic fields.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio’s statement said.
“We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applicants from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” the statement added.
Trump’s Stated Figure More Than Doubles Chinese Student Numbers
The 600,000 figure Trump cites is also much higher than the number of Chinese students most recently tracked by the Institute of International Education (IIE). According to the IIE’s Open Doors data, there were 277,398 Chinese students in this country in 2023-2024, down from a peak of 372,532 in 2019-2020, before the pandemic. Enrollment has been steadily declining in recent years due to deteriorating U.S.-China relations, China’s shrinking youth population, and restrictions imposed during Trump’s first term.
There had been indications that Chinese students may be opting for study destinations other than the U.S. due to volatile visa policies. For example, 75 percent of non-local students at universities in Hong Kong are from mainland China. In a recent intake, there was a 48 percent increase in students from mainland China compared with the year before.
In addition, Chinese students also represented just under 40% of international enrollments in Japan, a country where tuition is much cheaper than in Anglophone destinations. A large number of Chinese graduate students are skilled enough in Japanese to pursue degrees in the local language.
International Student Contribution to the U.S. Economy Endangered
Earlier, a study indicated that the U.S. could lose as much as $7 billion in local economic activity this fall due to a steep decline in international student enrollments triggered by heightened scrutiny of student social media accounts, the implementation of visa bans and shifting student visa policies.
Data from the Department of Homeland Security’s SEVIS system and the State Department point to a 30-40% fall in new international students, which could culminate in a 15% overall decline in international students for fall 2025. This shortfall could translate to more than 60,000 U.S. job losses, according to the study.
International students added $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 378,000 jobs during the 2023–2024 academic year, according to data from education organization NAFSA. In remarks defending Trump’s position, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick noted in an interview that international students contribute significantly to U.S. higher education and that as many as 15% of colleges could close without their financial support.
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