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WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. will permit 600,000 Chinese students to enroll at colleges and universities here despite a standoff with Beijing over sweeping tariffs.

Trump made the comments at the White House on Monday after days of mounting economic pressure and a new threat to impose 200 percent tariffs on Chinese-manufactured magnets. The pushback has come as the former president and Chinese President Xi Jinping continue to spar over economic and trade policy.

“I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students,” Trump told reporters Monday. “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’s comments came as trade negotiators on both sides had paused the threat of new tariffs in May under a deal struck in Geneva. Since then, however, the Trump administration has threatened to bring back 25 percent levies on a range of Chinese-made products and had raised the prospect of another 200 percent tariff on magnets last week.

The move was among a series of efforts by the Trump administration to force Beijing to rein in intellectual property theft. The magnets tariff had been proposed last week on the basis that China “owns 97% of that market and artificially manipulates its global supply,” Trump wrote in a tweet.

“China, intelligently, went and they sort of took a monopoly on the world’s magnets,” Trump said Monday. “It’ll probably take us a year to have them.”

The comment about students came as the Trump administration has tried to ratchet up pressure on Chinese technology companies without impeding academic collaboration. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department was preparing to “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students, especially those affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party and working in certain research areas.

The move was reportedly scuttled after it was strongly criticized by universities that rely on enrollment from China, home to about 270,000 American students. Trump later said he had “always been in favor” of letting those students in.

Monday’s announcement also could bode well for American universities and schools, many of which have long sought to double the number of Chinese students on their campuses. Tuition fees paid by Chinese students who enroll in U.S. universities are a source of revenue for those schools, which Trump and others have criticized over the years.

Chinese students, as with international students from other countries, are not eligible for the same federal and state financial aid that is available to American citizens. If allowed in, they could be a major source of tuition-based revenue for colleges that are having difficulty keeping enrollment numbers up post-pandemic.

The back-and-forth on Monday was part of an interview that Trump granted ahead of a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung later in the day. When asked whether he would be willing to meet with President Xi Jinping this year, Trump said: “I would like to meet him this year.”

“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,” Trump continued. “But he allowed that. They just took him to the cleaners.” Trump’s comments came as trade negotiators on both sides had paused the threat of new tariffs in May under a deal struck in Geneva. Since then, however, the Trump administration has threatened to bring back 25 percent levies on a range of Chinese-made products and had raised the prospect of another 200 percent tariff on magnets last week.

The move was among a series of efforts by the Trump administration to force Beijing to rein in intellectual property theft. The magnets tariff had been proposed last week on the basis that China “owns 97% of that market and artificially manipulates its global supply,” Trump wrote in a tweet.