China yesterday opened its borders for foreign students for the first time in more than two years, easing restrictions on their entry imposed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Foreign nationals holding a Chinese residence permit for study or an APEC business travel card would be allowed to enter the country, the Chinese embassy in the US said in a statement on WeChat on Tuesday.
Similar statements were made by the Chinese embassies in Japan and India.
Photo: Bloomberg
While the country has been allowing some students to enter on an ad-hoc basis for some time, the move shows that Beijing is attempting to normalize aspects of the economy — while holding fast to its “zero COVID-19” approach.
Anyone entering China still faces one of the most intensive pandemic border regimes globally, with mandatory traveler quarantines still in place.
Allowing international students to return does not mean China has relaxed its strict pandemic control measures or that the government has abandoned its dynamic “zero COVID-19” policy, the state-run Global Times reported.
Lu Hongzhou (盧洪洲), a health commentator and president of the Third People’s Hospital in Shenzhen, said further shortening the quarantine period for inbound travelers in the short term is unlikely, the report added.
China still has the world’s toughest entry requirements, even after easing quarantine rules in June. Arriving travelers need to spend seven days in an isolation facility and then monitor their health at home for a further three days. Flights to the country are also limited.
The country welcomed 492,185 foreign students in 2018, low compared with the more than 1 million enrolled in the 2019-2020 academic year in the US, where international education is a significant industry.
Most of China’s students came from South Korea, followed by Thailand and Pakistan.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
RSS