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Former President Donald Trump declared Monday that China would be allowed to send 600,000 students to the United States to study in American colleges and universities, an about-face on what he’d previously promised to do as trade relations between the two countries have soured.

Trump announced the White House on Monday. The move follows months of tensions between Washington and Beijing, which have ramped up in recent months amid Trump’s decision to levy broad tariffs on Chinese goods.

“I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students,” Trump said to reporters at the White House. “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 decision to reverse his previous course on Chinese students comes as trade talks have also stagnated between the two countries. In early May, the Trump administration decided to levy a 145 percent tariff on all Chinese-made goods imported into the United States, which the Chinese government quickly answered with its own 125 percent tariff on American goods exported to the country.

The deal in Geneva last month prevented any further tariffs from going into effect, but Trump has said he is still looking to slap additional levies on the country. Last week, the president mused about a 200 percent tariff on magnets from China, a critical component of electronics manufacturing. Trump said China “went and took a monopoly on the world’s magnets,” and it will take the U.S. at least a year to make them domestically.

“So we’re being taken advantage of on magnets,” Trump added. “It’s one of the many, but it’s one of the big ones. So, they have a monopoly.”

He added that the tariffs were intended to penalize China for taking advantage of the U.S. economic relationship.

About 270,000 Chinese citizens currently study in U.S. universities, according to government data. If the 600,000 total is met, it will represent a doubling of that number. Schools, which were particularly hard hit during the pandemic by the shuttering of international enrollment, would receive a boost from additional students and the tuition they pay.

Chinese students already make up the largest foreign class studying in the U.S., paying an average of $15,000 per year in tuition. The announcement would double that number, and total tuition paid by Chinese students will more than double as well.

Trump had initially promised last year that he would ban all Chinese students from entering the United States. In May, the State Department announced it would be “aggressively revoking” visas from Chinese nationals who are members of the Chinese Communist Party, or work in “science and technology” areas that overlap with the U.S.

His comments at the time raised alarms in Washington and with colleges, with some schools going so far as to hire lobbyists in the space to press for more moderate language. Trump also appeared to walk back the proposed ban on Chinese students in June, saying he “always has been in favor” of students coming to America.

On Monday, Trump said that negotiations on trade and tariffs would continue with China, but that he wants more people-to-people contact. The comments came just before he was set to meet with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday.

“I would like to meet him this year,” Trump said, when asked whether he would meet with Xi Jinping. “I think that’s important to do. It’s also important to do with respect to China because we’re taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and the different things.”

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