Two years on, 23,000 Indian students awaiting their return to China still in limbo

New Delhi, Feb 09: China yet again remains non-committal on the return of Indian students to their universities despite announcing a few days ago that Beijing will facilitate the return of international students to China from Mongolia, Singapore, and Pakistan to resume their classes.

China made these announcements after talks with the leaders from Mongolia, Singapore, and Pakistan who came to Beijing to attend the Winter Olympics 2022.

Without giving any timeline or any reason for not allowing Indian students to return, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian in Beijing repeated China's year-old reply and said that under the impact of COVID-19, China is "ready to coordinate efforts" for the return of foreign students to resume their studies in China.

China has closed its border since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 but relaxed it last year in March for certain categories which did not include students.

Around 23,000 Indian students have been waiting for their return to their universities for the last two years.

The Indian Embassy in Beijing has been continuously taking up the matter with Chinese authorities but to no avail.

Earlier, China has allowed students from South Korea and the United States. Last year, China had strongly reacted when the US denied visas to a few Chinese students but on the issue of return of foreign students to China, it maintains a deafening silence as it is not able to give any reason.

Experts say, apparently now, China has included the matter of the return of international students as part of its negotiations with foreign governments as evident from the recent announcements in the case of Mongolia, Singapore, and Pakistan rather than keeping it a matter solely related to student's career and future.

Last year, China made similar announcements for Indonesia and Malaysia.