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The Trump administration will allow 600,000 Chinese students to study in American colleges and universities despite a months-long standoff over Beijing’s trade practices and the onerous tariffs he has imposed in response, former President Donald Trump announced Monday.

Trump, who spoke from the White House Rose Garden, suggested that the decision would increase pressure on Beijing to deal more fairly with Washington. At the same time, he said that it was important to the U.S. education system that students from China would be allowed to continue to study at American colleges and universities.

Trump’s announcement, which followed months of hardline rhetoric, appeared to signal a slight easing in the escalating U.S.-China relationship and came as trade negotiators from both sides work to prevent economic damage. Earlier this year, Washington raised the tariff on all Chinese imports to 145 percent, and Beijing raised the tariff on all American exports to 125 percent, prompting concerns that the United States and China were entering into an economic cold war.

In May, negotiators in Geneva reached a truce, agreeing not to impose additional levies for the rest of the year. But in recent weeks, Trump had threatened to impose new tariffs and said last week he was mulling a 200 percent tax on Chinese-made magnets, because the Chinese have a “practically a monopoly” on the imports.

“I think we have a year to build magnets. We will be ordering our first ones, but China, intelligently, went and they sort of took a monopoly on the world’s magnets,” Trump said. “But we will be ordering the first ones.”

In addition to the announcement on student visas, Trump signaled that a rapprochement with Xi was possible, albeit only after Beijing gives in to U.S. demands. The president also warned that tariffs could increase even further.

“I would like to meet him this year. I think it’s a very good idea. It’s a good relationship economically. We’re taking in a lot of money from China because of the tariffs and the different things,” 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.”

Trump, who is visiting South Korea to meet with President Lee Jae Myung, said that he thought it would be possible to meet Xi before the end of the year. “We’re having very good discussions, but it’s not at that level yet,” Trump said of negotiations with China.

The United States currently has about 270,000 Chinese students in American colleges and universities, and Trump’s announcement would more than double that total and potentially open a new source of tuition dollars to American schools.

The announcement represents a departure from the Trump administration’s hardline approach to Chinese visas earlier this year. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would be “aggressively revoking visas” for Chinese citizens, especially those with Chinese Communist Party ties or working in sensitive research areas. Universities balked at that proposal, as Chinese students make up a large proportion of the international students at many schools, and a revocation of visas would cost money and academic talent.

Trump has since suggested that he was in favor of allowing Chinese students into the United States, and on Monday, he again seemed to walk back the hardline rhetoric. “I have always been in favor of letting them come to our schools and universities,” he said at the time. “They are amazing students, and it’s something we’re going to do.”