President Donald Trump’s recent policy decisions regarding China could backfire amid trade negotiations with Beijing’s communist regime, China analysts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Trump announced on Monday that he would allow 600,000 Chinese students to study in the U.S., less than a week after the White House launched an official account on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok. While the president cast the move as a win-win for America, it caused a rare backlash among a swath of his supporters, and some experts warn it could send a dangerous signal to Beijing.
“China is more than happy to send 600,000 potential spies here,” China expert and author Gordon Chang told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We do not, at this crucial moment, need to feed China’s already inflated sense of self-importance.”
Trump defended the move Tuesday, saying the students would be fully vetted and arguing they are vital to the survival of American universities. Over 277,000 Chinese international students were admitted to U.S. colleges between 2023 and 2024 — many of whom pay full tuition — according to the Institute of International Education.
“We’re getting along very well with China. And I’m getting along very well with President Xi. I think it’s very insulting to say students can’t come here because they’ll go out, they’ll start building schools and they’ll be able to survive it,” Trump said. “I like that their students come here, I like that other countries’ students come here. And you know what would happen? If they didn’t, our college system would go to hell very quickly.”
Trump’s announcement does not represent a policy change but maintains existing rules, according a White House official who spoke to Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich.
“President Trump isn’t proposing an increase in student visas for Chinese students. The 600k references two years worth of visas. It’s simply a continuation of existing policy,” the official reportedly stated.
The White House declined the DCNF’s request for further comment.
Still, Trump’s decision marks a reversal from earlier plans to aggressively revoke visas from Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party. In June, the president also signed a proclamation that sought to block Harvard University from admitting new international students under the Visa program, citing national security concerns.
“Our adversaries, including the People’s Republic of China, try to take advantage of American higher education by exploiting the student visa program for improper purposes and by using visiting students to collect information at elite universities in the United States,” Trump said in the proclamation.
The proclamation was ultimately blocked by a federal judge.
Concerns about Chinese espionage have been underscored by recent incidents on U.S. campuses. At Stanford University, students uncovered a pattern of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents attempting to access sensitive research. And in June, two Chinese nationals at the University of Michigan were arrested for allegedly smuggling biological materials into the country.
Beijing welcomed Trump’s move on Wednesday, urging Washington to follow through on the president’s commitments, and stop “groundlessly harassing, interrogating or repatriating Chinese students, and earnestly protect their legitimate and lawful rights and interests.”
Chang said Beijing’s eagerness to send its students to the U.S. reflects the CCP’s nefarious ambitions.
“China wants students to come here, believing the flow of talent to America benefits the regime. How do we know this? Beijing would not permit students to come here if it thought we were the net beneficiaries,” Chang said.
Steve Yates, a senior research fellow for China and National Security at the Heritage Foundation, said he was surprised by Trump’s announcement, given the administration’s broader efforts to curb Chinese influence in the U.S. He added that ongoing trade talks between the two countries likely played a role in the decision.
“When you look at everything from the Abraham Accords to the Russia-Ukraine negotiations to the North Korea talks, and even how he’s trying to set up the not-too-distant future conversation with Xi Jinping — there’s a deeper logic,” Yates, who also served as deputy national security advisor under former Vice President Dick Cheney, told the DCNF. “It could be that the administration is building out what elements are on the table, ones where they feel like they can move and accommodate in the areas where they can’t.”
“I think that this access to American education topic is falling into that category of what is building out the tool chest for the give and take negotiations,” Yates added.
Chang, however, said the optics and timing of the president’s announcement may work against his own interests.
“Trump’s comment, in the middle of a discussion of trade matters, makes it appear that China is doing Trump a favor by sending its students to America,” said Chang. “This perception means that in trade negotiations, Beijing will try to extract some concession from the administration for allowing the flow of students to continue.”
Trump’s decision on Chinese students coincides with the administration’s delay in enforcing a ban on TikTok. Congress passed a law in April 2024 banning the app unless it is sold to a non-Chinese owner within a year. Trump has already extended the deadline in January, April and June, and has indicated another extension may come in mid-September.
“My main concern is that the CCP is a very different challenge than all others on the planet at the moment. It is a more comprehensive challenge … and I don’t know that this transactional, bilateral negotiation approach captures that just yet,” said Yates. “I am concerned about how one might perceive the direction of these moves on the TikTok account, not compelling the sale of ByteDance to an American owner and the seeming retreat from thorough vetting of who exactly is getting the privilege to come to American universities.”
Chang echoed similar concerns, highlighting the broader strategic implications of the administration’s decisions.
“President Trump should enforce the law and just ban TikTok. If he does not ban the app, he will be reinforcing Beijing’s notion that Trump has acknowledged his submission to China,” Chang said. “Trump certainly does not feel he has submitted to the Chinese, but it does not matter what Trump thinks. What matters is what the Chinese think, because what they think determines how they act.”
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