{"id":376095,"date":"2025-08-26T22:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/376095\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T22:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:53:10","slug":"trump-says-hed-allow-600000-chinese-students-into-us-sparks-maga-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/376095\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he’d allow 600,000 Chinese students into US, sparks MAGA backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> seemingly caught his loyal conservative base off-guard and sparked backlash by saying he would allow 600,000 Chinese students into American universities.<\/p>\n

That would be a departure for the Trump administration after it added new vetting<\/a> for student visas, moved to block foreign enrollment<\/a> at Harvard and expanded the grounds for terminating international students\u2019 ability<\/a> to study in the United States. <\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has singled out China, the second highest source of international students in the U.S., saying in May<\/a> that the State Department would revoke visas for students tied to the Chinese Communist Party and boost vetting of new applicants.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s announcement Monday adds to the confusion about the administration\u2019s restrictive visa policies<\/a> and its approach to China as the superpowers tussle over trade and intensifying tech competition. It also marks another divide with figures in Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d base<\/a>, who tout an \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda and had contested the U.S. inserting itself<\/a> in the recent Israel-Iran war. <\/p>\n

Some of Trump\u2019s most ardent supporters \u2014 from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to former adviser Steve Bannon and far-right activist Laura Loomer \u2014 rejected the idea of welcoming more Chinese students.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not immediately clear why the figure Trump cited was so high \u2014 more than twice the number of Chinese students enrolled in the 2023-2024 school year. The total also has been falling in the past few years. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about Trump\u2019s announcement and the reaction:<\/p>\n

What did Trump say about Chinese students?<\/p>\n

During a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung<\/a> in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump was asked by reporters if he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Xi would like me to come to China. It\u2019s a very important relationship. As you know, we are taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and different things,\u201d he said. \u201cI hear so many stories about \u2018We are not going to allow their students,\u2019 but we are going to allow their students to come in. We are going to allow it. It\u2019s very important \u2014 600,000 students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump doubled down at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, sitting next to Rubio, where he said he was \u201chonored\u201d to have Chinese students in the U.S. and said they help colleges stay afloat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told this to President Xi that we\u2019re honored to have their students here,\u201d Trump said. \u201cNow, with that, we check and we\u2019re careful, we see who is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also said that Trump told Xi in a June phone call that \u201cthe U.S. loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a shift after the State Department announced in late May that it would \u201caggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections with the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

How many Chinese students come to the US?<\/p>\n

After decades of growth, the number of Chinese students<\/a> in the U.S. peaked at 372,532 in the 2019-2020 academic year, just as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. The number slipped to 289,526 in 2022 and further dipped to 277,398 in 2023. <\/p>\n

In the past year, several U.S. universities, including the University of Michigan<\/a>, have ended their joint partnerships with Chinese universities after Republicans raised concerns<\/a> that U.S. dollars have contributed to China\u2019s tech advancement and military modernization.<\/p>\n

Experts say the number of students is likely to fall further because of tense U.S.-China relations and China\u2019s declining population.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s growing bipartisan consensus that U.S. schools should not help train Beijing\u2019s top talent in critical fields such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and aerospace technology.<\/p>\n

Kurt Campbell, deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration, has said he would like to see Chinese students coming to the U.S. to study humanities and social sciences, \u201cnot particle physics.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his first term, Trump banned Chinese graduate students who had attended schools with Chinese military ties.<\/p>\n

How are Trump\u2019s supporters reacting?<\/p>\n

Bannon, one of Trump\u2019s former advisers, criticized the announcement Tuesday, saying \u201cthere should be no foreign students here for the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was asked Monday on Fox News\u2019 \u201cThe Ingraham Angle\u201d how such a shift would be consistent with Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d push. Lutnick argued that Trump was taking a \u201crational economic view\u201d and asserted that 15% of American universities and colleges would go out of business without those foreign students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t understand it for the life of me. Those are 600,000 spots that American kids won\u2019t get,\u201d host Laura Ingraham said. <\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s Cabinet meeting, Trump said international students are helping keep some U.S. schools afloat.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you know what would happen if they didn\u2019t (come)? Our college system would go to hell very quickly and it wouldn\u2019t be the top colleges. It would be colleges that struggle on the bottom,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

An analysis by NAFSA, an association of international educators, found that international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy and supported 378,175 jobs during the 2023-2024 academic year.<\/p>\n

Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia, raised questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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,\u201d Greene said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. <\/p>\n

What is China saying about student visa restrictions?<\/p>\n

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The foreign ministry has called out the U.S. for what it says is \u201cdiscriminatory, politically driven and selective law enforcement\u201d against Chinese students arriving in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Mao Ning, a ministry spokesperson, said Friday that students have been treated unfairly and subjected to extended interrogations. Mao said some students had their visas revoked and were banned from entering the country after they were told they \u201cmight endanger national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S.\u2019s moves severely violate the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese nationals, impede the flow of people between the two countries and dampen China-U.S. people-to-people exchanges,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The embassy issued an advisory Monday urging Chinese students not to enter the U.S. through Houston\u2019s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, alleging several students were harassed and interrogated by customs officials. The embassy said at least one student was detained for more than 80 hours before being sent back to China.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the commerce secretary\u2019s last name to Lutnick, instead of Lutnik.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump seemingly caught his loyal conservative base off-guard and sparked backlash by saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[11410,1395,7684,32,2266,4179,5212,14009,131333,131335,73316,55700,2820,78522,285,15895,131334,33114,15962,7143,49,5213,978,659,10673,263,1773],"class_list":{"0":"post-376095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-china-government","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-education","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-government-policy","15":"tag-howard-lutnick","16":"tag-kurt-campbell","17":"tag-laura-ingraham","18":"tag-laura-loomer","19":"tag-lee-jae-myung","20":"tag-marco-rubio","21":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","24":"tag-stephen-bannon","25":"tag-steve-bannon","26":"tag-u-s-department-of-state","27":"tag-u-s-news","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-united-states-government","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa","32":"tag-washington-news","33":"tag-world-news","34":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}