‘We want more Chinese students’: Donald Trump says US looking for new ways to keep scholars in the country
- American suspicions about academics’ ties to China won’t shift overnight but they can be eased, analyst says
- Trump said his administration wants a ‘smart person’s waiver’ to allow successful overseas university students to remain in the US more easily after graduation
US President Donald Trump said he wanted more Chinese students to go to the United States as concern grows about Chinese scholars in American academia.
“We want to have Chinese students [go] to our great schools and great universities. They are great students and tremendous assets,” Trump said on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on Saturday.
Trump said “someone” had said it was harder for Chinese students to go to the US under his immigration policy.
“If it were, that somebody viewed it that way, I don’t,” Trump said, adding that students from China should be treated “just like anybody else”.
He said his administration was looking for a new way – a “smart person’s waiver” – to allow successful overseas university students to remain in the United States more easily after graduation.
“So they can not only stay but maybe they have access to a green card. We want to keep these people here,” Trump said.