Beijing bars Chinese students from starting courses in Taiwan in 2020
Beijing has banned Chinese students from enrolling at Taiwan universities this year. Chinese students who are already enrolled in programs in Taiwan are not affected by the ban and can continue their studies if they wish. The ban comes after Beijing”s complaint that Taiwan had banned Chinese students from entering its borders amid the coronavirus pandemic.On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Education announced in a statement that “amid the measures to control the COVID-19 epidemic and the state of cross-strait relations, procedures for graduating students from all areas of China to pursue further education in Taiwan in 2020 have been temporarily suspended.” Taiwan’s Ministry of Education responded saying that China’s unilateral announcement was “regrettable.” The announcement has caught Taiwan universities unprepared.Richard FangChinese Culture UniversityWhen we first heard of the news we were quite startled. There will be some short-term impact. Actually, Chinese student enrollment has gone down the past few years at our school. It’s due to the influence of politics and the general climate.But overall in Taiwan, Chinese student enrollment has risen slightly over the past three years. In 2017, there were 2,139 new students from China. Enrollment edged up to 2,140 in 2018 and 2,259 in 2019. Hong Kong and Macao students are not yet included in China’s ban on studying in Taiwan. But even so, universities are bracing for a big impact next semester.Richard FangChinese Culture UniversitySchools can’t really control politics or the general atmosphere. We spent a lot of time setting ourselves up for Chinese students, and we’ve done a good job of it. We spent a lot of time cultivating the Chinese student market. So of course, it’s a bit of a shame that this has happened.School administrators say they’re feeling put out by the ban. As of this time, the ban does not affect Chinese students already studying in Taiwan, but it may put pressure on them to rethink their plans.
