International Courant
TAIPEI – The final batch of bachelor’s college students from China have simply graduated in Taiwan – and there are none to exchange them within the new college 12 months in August.
It is because Beijing has but to raise a 2020 ban on its college students enrolling in new diploma packages at Taiwanese universities when it cited issues over Covid-19 and relations between the 2 international locations.
It is a actuality that college students and specialists say will solely enhance misunderstanding and prejudice between folks on either side of the Taiwan Strait.
With solely short-term college students and present college students progressing to postgraduate packages remaining, the variety of Chinese language college students in Taiwan is estimated to be at a document low of about 2,000 by 2023.
“Many younger Taiwanese are naturally hostile to China, particularly because the implementation of the nationwide safety legislation in Hong Kong (in 2020),” stated Mr. Li Gongqin, vice chairman of Shih Hsin College in Taipei, the place as much as 800 mainland Chinese language college students in a single 12 months.
“However from what I’ve seen, speaking with Chinese language college students typically helps these younger folks see issues from a unique perspective, even when they could disagree,” he stated, including that the “aggressive nature” of Chinese language college students additionally forces their Taiwanese counterparts to work tougher.
The ban doesn’t apply to present Chinese language college students in Taiwan, who’re allowed to finish their diploma and keep to proceed their research. Change college students who comply with short-term packages are additionally not affected.
However with no new graduate college students arriving on the island, the overall variety of Chinese language college students has declined sharply.
There aren’t any restrictions for Taiwanese college students enrolling in Chinese language universities. In line with Chinese language state media, there are about 12,000 Taiwanese college students finding out in China.
“Instructional exchanges throughout the strait are at the moment asymmetrical, which could be very unlucky for either side,” stated Professor Tso Chen-dong, a political scientist from Nationwide Taiwan College.
“Communication ought to at all times go each methods, however we have misplaced an essential path for Taiwanese college students to grasp their Chinese language counterparts right here – and vice versa.”
That’s deeply felt by Abby (not her actual identify), a latest Chinese language graduate who accomplished her bachelor’s diploma in humanities at Feng Chia College in Central Taiwan in June.
Up to now 4 years, she has skilled fairly a little bit of discrimination, she stated.
Some Taiwanese checked out her as quickly as they heard her accent, and on her social media accounts she obtained taunts demanding she “return to China”.
No college students from mainland China in Taiwan for the brand new college 12 months amid tensions between the 2 straits
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