Minister Says Malaysian Students Might Be Allowed to Return to China Soon

China is expected to allow international students to enter the country soon and attend in-person studies after almost two years, among them, those from Malaysia, according to the Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

The minister was quoted saying by Free Malaysia Today (FMT) that students who are in their final year of studies and whose work cannot be completed remotely as they need to use the laboratory facilities for their research, will be prioritized, Erudera.com reports.

In a Twitter post, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Malaysia expressed gratitude for being one of the prioritized countries in China’s pilot program on the return of international students to the country.

‘Malaysia appreciates being among top priority countries in China’s pilot project for return of international students to China. Malaysia & China will continue to build on the existing strong ties and will collectively steer away from the devastation caused by the pandemic,” the ministry tweeted.

At the moment, over 100 Malaysian students are still in China as the latter did not leave the country after the COVID-19 outbreak last year.

However, thousands of other international students, among them 8,000 students from Malaysia, continue to be affected by the entry ban, remaining stuck abroad and unable to resume studies due to border closure.

Since March 2020, China’s international students have urged authorities to assist them in their return to the country but claimed that they have been receiving the same feedback from authorities; that students should wait for notice, which according to them, has been a huge drawback for them.

“I have lacked exposure to practical content that is much needed in my major to provide maximum safety for aircraft passengers when designing planes and the engineering that surrounds it,” an Aeronautical Engineering student from Malawi, East Africa, studying at Beihang University, told Erudera.

Students have often expressed frustration over China’s travel restrictions through social media posts too. On Twitter, they have united under hashtags#TakeStudentsBacktoChina and #TakeUsBacktoChina to express their concerns, calling on the competent bodies to allow them to return to China.

Most recently, two international universities in China, Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and New York University (NYU) Shanghai said that they are planning to welcome in China international students remaining abroad due to travel restrictions, starting in March next year. However, the Chinese government did not make any official announcement in this regard.

These universities have urged students to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before submitting their visa applications.