International university students wait as China remains closed to them
- Nearly half a million international students have been locked out of China since March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic
- Many have to work part-time jobs to support themselves and their families while struggling with classes several time zones away
Faisal Hisyam Muhammad had nothing but superlatives for China. He liked the culture. He always wanted to learn Mandarin. He loved how Shanghai developed into the megalopolis it is today.
“I’ve been to China before, and I just fell in love with it,” the 24-year-old said.
He was excited to have received an offer in 2019 to study in a master’s programme in marine science at the prestigious Tongji University in Shanghai.
After spending his first six months honing his Chinese and flying home to Indonesia to visit his family in January last year, he was shut out of China and is spending half his days working as a tutor to make ends meet after his Chinese government stipend was cut.
He and nearly half a million other international students have been locked out of China since March 2020, when the country closed its borders to most foreigners as the pandemic swept across the world.
Many have had to work part-time to support themselves and their families while struggling with classes several time zones away, often delivered through patchy internet connections.