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Former President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. would admit 600,000 Chinese students to study at American colleges, a shift that would buck months of increasing tensions with China.

Trump was clear from the White House that, despite the aggressive push on trade, his administration wants to keep academic doors open. Trump’s administration has made frequent moves in recent months to pressure Beijing, including with tariffs that affect nearly all Chinese goods imported to the U.S. and a host of other economic restrictions. In addition, Trump has repeatedly threatened more.

“I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students,” Trump said to reporters Monday. “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.”

Trump’s tariff and trade push had been effective, but had also prompted China to raise its own tariffs on U.S. exports to 125 percent earlier this year. Washington responded with a 145 percent tariff on all Chinese goods. In May, negotiators in Geneva agreed to put a hold on new tariffs, but Trump had suggested new ones in recent weeks, including one on all Chinese-made magnets, which he says Beijing currently monopolizes, as much as 200 percent in late June.

“China, very intelligently, went and they sort of took a monopoly on the world’s magnets. They make a lot of our magnets,” Trump told reporters last week. “It’ll probably take us a year to have them.”

Currently, an estimated 270,000 Chinese students are attending college in the U.S. Trump’s number of 600,000 would double that amount, representing both a symbolic and financial win for American universities. The schools have long relied on fees from Chinese students to make up the difference in tuition.

Trump’s comments this week shift away from earlier promises by some Trump officials. In May, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said the U.S. would “aggressively revoke” visas for certain Chinese students, especially those tied to the Chinese Communist Party or in sensitive research positions. The move had drawn a sharp rebuke from higher education advocates and the universities themselves.

Trump later seemed to move away from that rhetoric, and in June, told reporters he was “always in favor of allowing Chinese students to come to our schools.”

Asked if he would be open to a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at some point, Trump was more upbeat. “I would like to meet him this year,” he said.

“As you know, we’re taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and the different things. It’s a very important relationship,” Trump added. “It’s a much better relationship economically than it was before with Biden. But he allowed that. They just took him to the cleaners.”

By announcing the student visa expansion amid hardline rhetoric on trade and tariffs, Trump signaled the administration would not back down from economic competition, but would remain open to educational exchange. It’s a potential avenue that will have major consequences for U.S. colleges and universities that have long used international students to make up large shares of their funding.

For now, Trump’s comments will be heavily scrutinized in Beijing and at U.S. universities alike, as officials, educators, and students wait for further signs on whether the promise is real.