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President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States will allow 600,000 Chinese students to study in American colleges, signaling a potential thaw in U.S.-China relations after months of aggressive trade action by both sides.

The former president made the remarks from the White House before an event on the economy.

Trump noted that while the United States was continuing to levy tariffs on Chinese goods and warning of further restrictions, he was also ensuring that academic links between the two countries remained open.

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

The announcement came just days after the U.S. trade representative imposed sweeping tariffs on Beijing, including a new 145 percent levy on all Chinese goods, while President Xi Jinping warned that the Chinese economy would “not allow anyone to bully, oppress or vanquish us.”

The Chinese government has hit back hard, levying a 125 percent tariff on American exports and vowing further action if the United States takes additional steps.

The back-and-forth has caused concern on both sides, with the World Economic Forum (WEF) warning that the United States and China would not be able to sustain a full-on trade war, but both countries would also feel a significant economic impact if no resolution were found.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators in Geneva agreed in May to a truce on new tariffs, but the White House has floated new penalties on a number of Chinese goods in recent weeks. Last week, Trump suggested a 200 percent tariff on Chinese-made magnets and noted that Beijing had a near-total monopoly on the global supply.

“I heard just recently that China, intelligently, went and they sort of took a monopoly on the world’s magnets,” Trump said. “It’ll probably take us a year to have them.”

Trump also noted that he did not expect the U.S. and China to be in total agreement on “big issues” in the short-term but said that it would be “possible” for the two nations to forge a “business relationship.”

There are currently around 270,000 Chinese nationals studying in the United States. Trump’s announcement would more than double that figure and could provide a much-needed cash injection to American colleges and universities, which are heavily reliant on tuition from international students.

Chinese Students’ Visas Sent Off Track

Trump’s announcement represents a reversal of his own administration’s position on Chinese students in the United States. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that the United States would begin “aggressively revoking” visas from Chinese nationals who are members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or who work at Chinese universities in sensitive research fields.

The plan provoked immediate outcry from the higher education sector, with many universities warning of financial and intellectual harm if Beijing students were turned away.

Trump himself seemed to reverse course on that promise in June, when he told reporters that he had “always been in favor” of allowing Chinese students to study at American universities.

Trump’s comments on Monday came ahead of a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, and the former president was asked if he would be willing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said that he would “like to” and that it was “very important to keep dialogue open.”

“I would like to meet him this year,” Trump 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.”

“It’s a much better relationship economically than it was before with Biden. But he allowed that. They just took him to the cleaners,” he added.

Trump followed his positive words on China with further claims on the tariffs. The former president said that the tariffs had caused the Chinese economy to go “down the tubes” and had resulted in a “fabulous deal” for the U.S.

“So we have a great relationship on that, but we have a great — on that economic situation, I think a fantastic relationship. We have great dialogues,” Trump said.