(BBC News) US President Donald Trump has defended his decision to issue 600,000 Chinese student visas, despite a backlash from some supporters.
He told the Daily Caller on Sunday that it would be “insulting” to ban them, and said his move would benefit smaller universities.
The president is reversing the hard line his administration has taken on this for months, as trade talks with China continue.
Some of his allies in the MAGA (Make America Great Again) wing of Trump’s Republican Party have expressed anger and confusion. “I just don’t understand it for the life of me,” said Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “Those are 600,000 spots that American kids won’t get.”
Trump has defended that position by arguing that Chinese students bring money to the US economy and that denying them visas would weaken relations between the two countries.
“I have a very good relationship with [Chinese] President Xi. I think it’s very insulting to a country when you say you’re not going to take your students,” Trump told the Daily Caller, a right-wing news outlet.
“You know, I get along with China,” he added. “China’s paying us a lot of money right now. They are paying us hundreds of millions of dollars.”
In May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would “aggressively” revoke Chinese visas, especially “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
The announcement came as relations between Washington and Beijing continued a downhill trend, prompted by a tit-for-tat trade war that was sparked by Trump’s tariffs. The two sides are currently in a tariffs truce.
The White House has said that those 600,000 student visas will be issued over the next two years, in line with numbers issued in previous years.
Trump told the Daily Caller he did not expect anything in return for allowing students into the country.
“No, I just think it’s, I think it’s, I think what we’re doing is the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s good to get along with countries, not bad, especially, you know, nuclear-powered countries.”
