China has granted visas to around 1,300 Indian students and nearly 300 businesspeople in recent weeks, though travel to the country for Indian nationals continues to be a hurdle and at least 20,000 more students are waiting to resume their courses at Chinese institutions.
Liu Jinsong, director general of the Asia department of China’s foreign ministry, told Indian ambassador Pradeep Rawat at a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday about “recent progress” in people-to-people exchanges. The two sides had a “frank and friendly exchange” on China-India relations, the global and regional situation and issues of common concern, according to a readout from China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday.
Liu said more than 1,300 Indian students had been granted visas, while nearly 300 businessmen, in two batches, took charter flights operated by Chinese airlines to Yiwu city in Zhejiang province.
The issue of visas to Indian students by China has picked up pace in recent weeks but lengthy quarantine periods and the lack of direct flights from India continue to be major hurdles, people familiar with the matter said. Only some 100 Indian students returned to China over the past few months, they said.
The applications of many Indian students to return are currently with their universities and the people said the issue was now largely being handled by the Chinese educational institutions.The people said most students are still waiting to resume their courses after a gap of more than two years.
{{/usCountry}}The applications of many Indian students to return are currently with their universities and the people said the issue was now largely being handled by the Chinese educational institutions.The people said most students are still waiting to resume their courses after a gap of more than two years.
{{/usCountry}}According to official estimates, around 23,000 Indian students are currently enrolled in Chinese universities, a vast majority of them studying medicine. The numbers had gone up over the past decade until the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
The lack of direct flights to China has meant that Indian nationals have returned via Hong Kong or through third countries, though the high ticket prices on these routes continue to be an issue, the people said.
The people further said the Indian side will not encourage more Indian nationals to take up studies in China in view of the problems faced by Indians enrolled in Chinese universities over the past two years. China, which has a “zero Covid” policy, eased pandemic-related travel restrictions only in August, paving the way for the return of international students.
At the external affairs ministry’s regular news briefing last week, spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the issue of the return of Indian students had been raised with Chinese officials both in New Delhi and Beijing. The Chinese embassy in New Delhi began accepting visa applications from Indian students on August 24.
“Our mission in Beijing has continued to press and pursue with the Chinese side for completing the necessary formalities enabling our students’ return to China at an early date. I would advise our students to stay in touch with their universities for carrying out procedures for obtaining a visa and returning to China,” Bagchi said.
The people said direct flights between India and China may not resume soon unless Beijing changes its policy of sudden cancellation of all flights every time a few passengers in an aircraft test positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Chinese airports.
Under Chinese Covid-19 controls, a “circuit-breaker” protocol is implemented every time passengers test positive at Chinese airports. Under the protocol, flights on that route – of that particular airline – are cancelled for a fixed number of days.
Flight services between India and China have been suspended since March 2020. The current chill in bilateral diplomatic ties isn’t helping the cause of resuming flights .
In September, India advised prospective students planning to study clinical medicine in Chinese universities to be aware of “common” challenges, including the quality of teaching in English, lack of ways to gain practical experience and the low percentage of graduates who pass the mandatory Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) after returning to India.
The cautionary points were included in an advisory from the Indian embassy in Beijing in September in response to queries from Indian students about studying medicine in China.