Ahead of his meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung at the White House on Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he plans to allow 600,000 Chinese students into the country, NBC News reports. That figure is more than double the number now in the US.
“We’re going to get along good with China. I hear so many stories about ‘We’re not going to allow their students’” to come in, Mr Trump was quoted as saying. “We’re going to allow, it’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important.”
NBC reported that an estimated 277,398 Chinese international students were studying in the US during the 2023-24 school year. Together with students from India, the group makes up more than half of the international students in the country. In 2023 alone, Chinese students contributed upward of $14 billion to the American economy, NBC reported.
