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Former President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. will continue to allow Chinese students to attend American colleges, despite the recent escalation of the U.S.-China tariff standoff.

Trump commented at a press conference at the White House on Monday. He said the U.S. would “strongly encourage” 600,000 students to come to the U.S. to study, an apparent effort to thaw relations with China even as his administration ratcheted up tariffs.

“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 said.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government imposed a 145 percent tariff on all Chinese products, a move that caused China to put a 125 percent tariff on U.S. products. China and the U.S. have been engaged in a tariff standoff, with Washington and Beijing both threatening to increase taxes on each other.

In May, negotiators in Geneva agreed to hold off on adding additional tariffs, but Trump has been threatening new ones in recent weeks. Last week, he warned that he was considering a 200 percent tariff on Chinese-made magnets, saying China had a near-complete monopoly on the industry.

“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’s comments on Monday come as his administration has been levying new sanctions and warnings of more to come. Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was preparing to “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese citizens, including those who work at the Chinese Communist Party or in sensitive research areas.

The proposal was panned in higher education circles, and universities had urged caution and restraint before making any such decision. Trump himself walked back his hardline stance on student visas last month, saying, “I have always been in favor of letting Chinese students come into our country.”

The number of Chinese students currently in the U.S. is around 270,000. A pledge to take in 600,000 would more than double the current number and bring in significant tuition dollars for U.S. colleges. For many institutions, international students make up a large part of the incoming freshman class.

The pledge to open the door to Chinese students comes shortly before a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. The former president was asked whether he would be open to a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the future. “I would like to meet him this year,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. But certainly. I would like to meet him.”

“The relationship with China is very important, but they’re making a lot of money from us on tariffs and the different things. So that’s a very important relationship that we have,” Trump said. “But it’s a much better relationship than it was before with Biden. But he allowed that. They just took him to the cleaners.”

Trump’s rhetoric at the press conference alternated between threatening new tariffs and calling for improved ties with China. The net result appeared to be the same: the U.S. was not backing down from a position of economic competition but still left the door open for opportunities.

The student pledge would be a boon for many U.S. colleges and universities. The higher education industry in the U.S. is heavily dependent on international students, particularly those from China. China is the top provider of international students to U.S. schools, and those students contribute billions of dollars a year to the U.S. economy.

Increasing the number of Chinese students in the U.S. from 270,000 to 600,000 would bring in additional revenue and fundamentally change the number of students schools will have on their campuses. It also comes on the heels of a hardline rhetoric from other Trump administration officials and threatens to undermine it.