China Willing to ‘Facilitate Return of Indian Students on Need-Assessed Basis’: Chinese Foreign Ministry

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reportedly told a media briefing that China attaches high importance to Indian students' concerns about returning to China for studies.

Beijing: China on Friday expressed willingness to consider facilitating return of Indian students to the neighbouring nation, as it announced plans to permit the return of some” Indian students stranded in India for over two years following the visa and flight restrictions imposed by Beijing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The development comes after the meeting of External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar with Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi on March 25th, said the Embassy of India in China. “The Chinese side has expressed willingness to consider facilitating return of Indian students to China, so we request students to provide information by filling up the form by May 8th,” it added.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reportedly told a media briefing that China attaches high importance to Indian students’ concerns about returning to China for studies. We have shared with the Indian sides the procedures and experience of other countries’ students returning to China. Actually, the work for Indian students’ return has already been started. All that remains to be done is for the Indian side to provide the list of students who really need to come back to China, he said.

As per earlier reports, over 23,000 Indian students, mostly studying medicine in Chinese colleges, are stuck in India after they returned home as the coronavirus broke out in China in December 2019. They could not return to China due to the restrictions imposed by the Chinese government to arrest the spread of the contagion. Since then, they made desperate attempts to return to China to re-join their classes but had to confine to online classes as Beijing cancelled all flights and visas for Indians.

(With inputs from agency)