President Trump announced Monday that the U.S. would vastly increase the number of visas offered to Chinese students to study at American universities. During a press availability at the White House, President Trump made the point that the U.S. trade relationship with China was very important and that allowing Chinese students to attend American universities was part of that.
NOW - Trump says he'll allow 600,000 Chinese students into the U.S. pic.twitter.com/8h0S9O1Ib6
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 25, 2025
President Xi would like me to come to China. Its a very important relationship. As you know, we're taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and different things. It's a very important relationship, we're going to along good with China. I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students. We’re going to allow their students to come in. It’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important. But we’re going to get along with China. But it's a different relationship that we have now with China. It's a much better relationship economically, that it was before. With Biden, boy, what he allowed them, they just took him to the cleaners.
There are approximately 277,000 Chinese students enrolled in U.S. universities, with a concentration in elite schools. They make up 24.6 percent of incoming students.
This announcement appears to mark a retreat from Secretary of State Marco Rubio's vow in May to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”; see Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth Commence As Rubio Makes His Move on Chinese Student Visas – RedState.
Last night on the Ingraham Angle, Laura Ingraham asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick why this was a good idea.
🚨 BREAKING: Fox's Laura Ingraham is GRILLING Howard Lutnick on how allowing 600K Chinese students into the United States is "America First?"
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 25, 2025
"With all due respect, how is allowing 600K students from the Communist country of China putting America first?"
"But why are you… pic.twitter.com/bvb9XqPqRU
INGRAHAM: Mr. Secretary, with all due respect, how is allowing 600,000 students from the communist country of China putting America first?
LUTNICK: The President's point of view is that what would happen if you didn't have those 600,000 students, you'd empty them from the top, all the students would go up to better schools, and the bottom 15% of universities would go out of business in America. So in his view, he's taking a rational economic view which is classic Donald Trump, looking at higher education saying...
INGRAHAM: But why are you helping Harvard? UCLA, U Cal Berkeley. Y'all helping those schools, why? They're basically factories of anti-American propaganda, now they're getting a big influx of cash because of the Chinese students. I mean I know President Trump has always been very pro-Chinese students I just don't understand it, for the life of me. Those are 600,000 spots that American kids won't get.
LUTNICK: I'll tell you what I'm involved in. I'm involved in changing the H1B program; we're going to change that program because that's terrible right. We're going to change the green card. We give green cards...the average American makes $75,000 a year, and the average green card recipient, $66,000. We're taking the bottom quartile, like, why are we doing that? That's why Donald Trump is going to change it; that's the gold card that's coming. We're going to start picking the best people to come into this country. It's time for that to change.
INGRAHAM: I think our American engineering students need to be given the first roll at every job, and I think they're brilliant when given half a chance.
I have to give Lutnick credit for playing a bad hand pretty damned well. I wish he'd talked a bit about the abuse of the H-4 visa program, which allows the spouses of H-1 B visa holders to compete in the U.S. job market.
I understand sweetening the trade deal with China by allowing more Chinese students into the U.S., but as Lutnick sort of admits, these students congregate in more prestigious universities. This has the effect of pushing American students into lower-tier schools. Where the impact is most felt is the presence of Chinese Ph.D. students in the labs of top-tier universities, depriving American students, who will likely stay in the U.S. and contribute to our economy, of the best educational opportunities.
Beyond the opportunity cost of such a policy (and would we really be worse off if the bottom 15% of colleges and universities just went away?), there is the military and economic security risk associated with the presence of Chinese students. We know the only Chinese students allowed to come to the U.S. have been politically cleared by the Chinese Communist Party and have family at home who are basically held hostage to the student's behavior. We know that Chinese law requires Chinese citizens to "support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts." There are even clues that Chinese scientists may be involved in overtly hostile acts. A CCP-controlled biolab was uncovered in California; see Twelve New Felony Charges Filed Against Operator of Illegal CCP-Linked Biolab – RedState. Chinese doctoral students have been indicted for smuggling a devastating crop fungus into the U.S.; see Chinese National Nabbed by DOJ for Allegedly Smuggling in Biological Material—and She's From Wuhan – RedState.
There is really no logical reason to at least double the number of Chinese students in the U.S. and substantial reasons to turn off the tap, regardless of how many American students Ivy League universities are forced to accept.
There is no information available on when this 600,000-student goal will be implemented.
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