China opens classroom doors to students from Thailand

Good news for students from Thailand as China announced last night that schools will be finally opening their doors to foreign students for the first time in two years.

Last year the Chinese ambassador, Han Zhiqiang, said that students from Thailand would be one of the first groups allowed to return to China when the country reopens.

Thailand has more than 30,000 students enrolled in educational programmes in China, only South Korea has more foreign students.

Han revealed he ordered his education counselors to assist in coordinating between Thai students and Chinese schools, to help them achieve their academic goals. He also commented that he is working with Chinese education officials to ensure the return of Thai students once Covid-19 is fully brought under control.

“If the Chinese government is ready to allow hundreds of thousands of international students to return, Thai students will be among the first.”

The Chinese embassy in the US announced on its popular social media platform WeChat that foreign nationals holding a valid Chinese residence permit for study or an APEC business travel card will be allowed to enter China from today.

The mainland has been allowing some students to enter while still maintaining its zero Covid-19 policy but it has not abandoned or relaxed the policy.

Lu Hongzhou, a health commentator and head of the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, said students will have to adhere to the mainland’s quarantine rules.

Students will need to spend seven days in an isolation facility and then monitor their health at home for a further three days before they can walk the streets or indeed enter a classroom.

China reported 1,748 Covid infections on Monday, down from a peak of more than 3,400 a week ago.

Officially, China has seen just over 5,200 fatalities since the pandemic started, versus more than 1 million in the US.

SOURCE: Gulf News