In recent years, preferential treatment for foreign students by Chinese universities has repeatedly stirred up resentment among the domestic student population.
A document, dated July 16, 2020, from the school’s Institute of International Education showed that Liuzhou City’s Foreign Affairs Office arranged a trip to Baipeng township, Liujiang district for 14 of the school’s international students.
The stated purpose of the trip was “mental relaxation” as well as “learning about the city’s accomplishment of constructing the beautiful countryside.”
An “emergency plan” attached to the document included specifics on what to do in cases of student injuries. For students with minor injuries, the supervising teacher was instructed to provide the “full accompanying service,” including sending the student to the hospital, reporting to the school administration, and communicating with the student’s parents.
According to student information attached in the document, most of the students come from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Laos and Indonesia.
Another document, dated Oct. 19, 2020, described other measures that the city’s Foreign Affairs Office took to create a “healthy and harmonious studying environment” for international students in Liuzhou city, citing students’ declining mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The document referenced the July trip where students were taken to see lotus flowers in Baipeng township, and another trip to the opening ceremony of Liuzhou’s annual water carnival.
The city’s Foreign Affairs Office also educated the international students on drug prohibition and AIDS prevention, according to the document.
The case of preferential treatment for foreign students at Liuzhou City Vocational College is not an isolated incident, as there have been many controversies in the past regarding the bias against the country’s own students.
A representative from the university told The Paper that the allegation was the students’ one-sided perspective, and that moving the students was a regular decision by the university.
The official statement released by the university acknowledged that Fangyuan, the older dorm that the domestic students moved into, could not provide 24-hour hot water for showering, but that the school had public shower rooms that would “effectively meet students’ showering needs.”
“Then my question is, why not move the international students to Fangyuan?” asked a Chinese netizen in a comment left under the article by The Paper.
Many netizens questioned the motive behind these pairings, which resembled match-making.
The university apologized for the inappropriate question on the registration form but defended the purpose of the program, which was to “help Chinese and foreign students improve their studies and learn each other’s culture by studying together.”
According to Zheng, Chinese students lived in dorm rooms of eight or six, the cheaper ones of which did not even have showers, but foreign students lived in apartments with their own kitchens and bathrooms.
Chinese students were not allowed to dye their hair or wear jewelry, and students of opposite genders could not hold hands, but “foreign students could ride electric bikes, motorcycles, and the girls could wear perfume, get a perm, wear jewelry, and dress very liberally,” Zheng said.
Zheng also confirmed allegations circulating on social media that the school was making Chinese students clean the apartments of foreign students as well as school bathrooms, libraries, and even construction sites on campus, while the international students did not have to do any cleaning.
