The Daily Populous Wednesday November 12nd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by foxnews.com and submitted by Gloomy_Nebula_5138

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Donald Trump on Monday defended his administration’s plan to offer 600,000 visas to Chinese students — a move that has drawn criticism from within conservative circles.

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham pressed Trump during an interview on "The Ingraham Angle," questioning how the proposal was "pro-MAGA" if it crowded out spots for American students and whether universities were "getting rich" from Chinese money.

Trump argued that foreign students — particularly from China — are vital to keeping U.S. universities financially stable, adding that cutting the number of Chinese students in half would cripple the system.

"We do have a lot of people coming in from China. We always have, China and other countries. We also have a massive system of colleges and universities. And if we were to cut that in half, which perhaps makes some people happy, you would have half the colleges in the United States would go out of business," he said.

SURVIVOR OF CHINA'S CULTURAL REVOLUTION WARNS AGAINST LETTING 600,000 CHINESE STUDENTS STUDY AT US COLLEGES

"I actually think it's good to have outside, countries. Look, I want to be able to get along with the world, not the French, though," he added.

"The Chinese, they spy on us, they steal our intellectual property," Ingraham shot back.

"Do you think the French are better?" Trump said.

"I’m not so sure," Trump said, citing French tariffs.

Trump continued to frame the issue in economic terms, saying Chinese students pay far more in tuition than Americans and help sustain the system.

TRUMP IGNITES CONSERVATIVE BACKLASH AFTER OPENING DOOR TO 600,000 CHINESE STUDENTS: 'WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?'

"It's not that I want them, but I view it as a business," he said. "One thing you don't want to cut half of the people, half of the students from all over the world that are coming into our country, destroy our entire university and college system. I don't want to do that."

Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea last week, saying the two leaders reached agreement on "almost everything." Following the meeting, China reportedly held off on some of its toughest export restrictions for critical minerals, while the U.S. delayed plans to impose triple-digit tariffs.

The remarks mark a reversal from earlier this year, when the Trump administration said it would "aggressively revoke" Chinese student visas amid espionage concerns. In August, Trump changed course and announced plans to expand the program dramatically.

More than 277,000 Chinese students studied in the U.S. during the 2023–2024 school year, according to the Institute of International Education — the second-largest foreign student population after India. That figure is down from a peak of over 372,000 in 2019–2020.

The comments come as the State Department has intensified its visa crackdown, revoking more than 80,000 nonimmigrant visas — including about 8,000 student visas — since the start of Trump’s term. Officials say many were revoked over criminal activity or participation in rallies against U.S. support for Israel.

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn criticized Trump’s comments on X, writing: "Sorry Mr. @POTUS if we didn’t allow 600K Chinese spies to steal even more intellectual property and other ideas about how to dominate are our way of life, it wouldn’t make a dent in U.S. colleges and universities."

"We simply don’t need to help the Chinese anymore with their plans to be the sole superpower this century," Flynn added. "They’ve been ripping us off for years. Because of that they have significant advantages over us now—and they have zero desire nor intent to make America great again."

China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law requires all citizens to cooperate with Chinese Communist Party intelligence efforts in the name of national security.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

China expert Gordon Chang, whose father fled Mao Zedong’s communist government after earning a master’s degree in the U.S., called the visa proposal "wrong-headed."

"Taking away spots in schools from Americans and giving them to future Chinese Communists is wrong, and admitting students who have been weaponized by the CCP to commit acts of espionage is extraordinarily dangerous," Chang told Fox News Digital. "American presidents for decades have allowed China’s regime to maintain in our country organizations and extensive networks of agents and diplomats that surveil, intimidate, and coerce Chinese and other students."

d4rkwing on November 11st, 2025 at 23:08 UTC »

Cool. Finally a piece of good news coming from his administration. Yes granting student visas is good. It’s good for our universities and good for the Chinese students and even good for the American students who get to interact with Chinese students in real life.

hither2forlorn on November 11st, 2025 at 22:52 UTC »

So now we know what Trump gave up to get the deal with China a few weeks ago.

Gloomy_Nebula_5138 on November 11st, 2025 at 19:50 UTC »

Starter: Trump has doubled down on a plan to grant 600,000 student visas to Chinese nationals. This is a surprise given that Trump and the MAGA movement have been generally considered to be “America first” and anti-China. But it also seems like a big strategic mistake, given the long history of asymmetric warfare from China against America and many other countries, like cyber attacks and intellectual theft. There have also been many recent Chinese startups in fields like AI that are founded by Chinese nationals who studied in American universities and worked at American tech companies before returning to China to found companies that may in the future threaten American economic or military dominance (example).

Trump was pressed on this issue in this interview with Laura Ingraham, but gave responses that don’t really make sense. For example he suggested that France, of all countries, is just as bad as China when it comes to spying and intellectual property theft, as if to say China is no bigger a problem than European allies of America. He also said that Chinese students help sustain the university system in America because they pay more in tuition per student, which of course makes no sense, since the system is mostly funded by American students and taxpayers and replacing the tuition paid by these students isn’t that big an expense for the US.

Leaving aside America, I’d also say that China is a threat to democratic societies in general, since China doesn’t practice democracy, and the Chinese government doesn’t uphold basic democratic values like free speech. China has also already committed abuses in its illegal annexation and sinicization of Tibet and sinicization of Xinjiang. A strengthened China is also a threat to Taiwan of course.

The US probably was wrong to grant China normal trade relations in 2000. But the threat posted by China is more obvious now. What explains Trump going soft on China in multiple ways like delaying the TikTok ban repeatedly, having higher tariffs on countries that are friendly with America than on China, and this issue of student visas? Or do people here think granting these visas is still the right decision despite these risks?