The Trump administration has not been very welcoming toward international students, and particularly those from China. So it was striking when President Trump declared that the United States not only wanted but needed Chinese students, and would let 600,000 of them into American universities.

特朗普政府一向对国际学生并不友好，尤其是中国留学生。因此，当特朗普总统宣称美国不仅想要中国学生，而且需要中国学生，并将允许60万名中国学生进入美国大学时，就显得格外引人注目了。

“It’s very insulting to say students can’t come here,” he said during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday. “I like that their students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here.”

“说不让学生来这里是非常侮辱人的，”他周二在白宫内阁会议上表示，“我乐于看到他们的学生来，也欢迎其他国家的学生来。”

He added: “And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly.”

他还说：“你们知道如果他们不来会怎样吗？我们的大学体系会很快完蛋。”

It is a little late to be beckoning international students to enroll. The fall semester is beginning at many schools and the message seemed to contradict steps the administration has taken to make it more difficult for students, including those from China, to enter and study in the United States.

然而，此时向国际学生发出入学邀请已有些滞后。美国多所学校的秋季学期即将开学，且此番表态似乎与政府此前限制学生（包括中国学生）赴美留学的举措相矛盾。

Earlier this year, for example, the Trump administration promised to put international students through a more intensive vetting process. Since then, there have been reports that visa appointments for students in China, as well as India, Nigeria and Japan, have been hard if not impossible to get. The visa problems could cause new international student enrollment in American colleges to drop by 30 to 40 percent this fall, according to one analysis.

例如，今年早些时候，特朗普政府曾承诺对国际学生实施更严格的审查流程。此后有报道称，中国、印度、尼日利亚和日本等国学生的学生签证面谈很难预约，甚至根本无法预约。据一项分析显示，签证问题可能导致今年秋季美国大学的国际新生入学人数下降30%至40%。

The Trump administration has also moved to revoke visas from thousands of students, although it has not provided information about the nationalities of those it has targeted. And Trump officials have called out Chinese students in particular as potential national security threats.

特朗普政府还采取行动，取消了数以千计学生的签证，不过并未公布这些被针对学生的国籍信息。此外特朗普政府官员特别指出中国留学生可能构成国家安全威胁。

But Mr. Trump has recently been sounding a very different note. While meeting with the South Korean president in the Oval Office on Monday, he said it was very important that China and the United States get along.

但特朗普近期却释放出截然不同的信号。周一在椭圆形办公室与韩国总统会面时，他表示，中美两国保持良好关系非常重要。

“I hear so many stories about we’re not going to allow their students — we’re going to allow their students to come in,” he said. “We’re going to allow, it’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important.”

“我听到很多说法，说我们不会允许他们的学生来——但我们会允许他们的学生来，”他说，“我们会允许，这非常重要，60万名学生。这非常重要。”

For years, China has been one of the top two senders of students to American campuses, along with India. China sent more than 277,000 students to the United States in 2023-24, according to the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, including undergraduate and graduate students. It was the top-sending country for undergraduates.

多年来，中国与印度一直是向美国输送留学生最多的两个国家。根据《开放门户国际教育交流报告》的数据，2023~2024学年，中国向美国输送了超过27.7万名学生，涵盖本科和研究生阶段，是美国本科阶段国际生最大来源国。

Chinese undergraduates, in particular, often pay full tuition for their education, and many universities rely on them for financial support — a fact Mr. Trump acknowledged in his remarks.

中国本科生尤其经常支付全额学费，许多美国大学的资金支持依赖于这一群体——特朗普在讲话中也承认了这一事实。

Chinese doctoral students carry out sophisticated research in science and technology fields that would founder without them. But they have often been portrayed as spies. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that the State Department would revoke visas for students associated with the Chinese Communist Party, along with the visas of those who were studying in certain sensitive fields.

中国博士生在科技领域开展高精尖研究，若没有他们，这些研究工作可能难以为继。但他们却常被描绘成间谍。国务卿鲁比奥5月曾表示，国务院将取消与中国共产党有关联的学生的签证，同时取消在某些敏感领域学习者的签证。

In the past, Mr. Trump has not been as hospitable. He has said that while he welcomed international students, some might be involved in academic espionage and pose security risks. His administration moved to stop Harvard from enrolling international students, a move that was blocked in court. In June, the president signed a proclamation that sought to cut off the institution’s international students, and accused Harvard of educating members of China’s Communist Party.

特朗普在过去没有表现出如此接纳的态度。他曾表示，尽管欢迎国际学生，但部分学生可能参与学术间谍活动，构成安全风险。他的政府曾试图让哈佛大学无法招收国际学生，但后来被法院阻止。6月，特朗普签署了一项旨在切断哈佛大学国际学生来源的公告，并指控该校为中国共产党成员提供教育。

“Our adversaries, including the People’s Republic of China, try to take advantage of American higher education by exploiting the student visa program for improper purposes and by using visiting students to collect information at elite universities in the United States,” Mr. Trump’s proclamation said.

特朗普的公告称：“包括中华人民共和国在内的我们的对手试图利用美国的高等教育体系，他们滥用学生签证项目以达到不正当目的，并利用来访学生在美国顶尖大学搜集信息。”

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that he had told China’s president, Xi Jinping, that “we’re honored to have the students here.” They would be vetted, he said, but “we have a tremendous college system, the best in the world, nobody even close. That’s why China sends them here. And you can call it an industry if you want, but you’re talking about millions of people. And I’m honored to have the students from China come here.”

周二，特朗普表示，他曾对中国国家主席习近平说，“我们很荣幸能让这些学生来美国。”他称，这些学生仍会接受审查，但“我们拥有极其出色的大学体系，是世界上最好的，没有任何国家能够相比。这也是中国把学生送到这里来的原因。如果你愿意，可以把它称作一个产业，但这里涉及上百万人。我很荣幸能让中国学生来这里留学。”