Int'l Students' Hope of Returning to China Soon Crushed
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Reports of some students receiving emails inviting them to return back to campus in China raised hopes for international students stuck abroad.
China's immunization has already surpassed the threshold suggested by the academician, Zhong Nanshan, to allow for co-existing with the virus and fully open borders.
Will the borders open for international students soon?
At the end of the year 2021 and the first few days of 2022, reports about some international students receiving invitation emails asking them to prapare for return to campus as soon as March spread over the internet.
The good news was welcomed by scores of international students who after almost two years away from campus, felt the move was past due.
No sooner as the emails invitation news popped up, another report also spread—A Sri Lankan Minister of Education saying that they will begin processing students who are studying in China.
This coupled with the comment by China's top respiratory infectious diseases expert, Zhong Nanshan:
"For China to fully open its borders, at least 80% or even 85% of the population in China must be vaccinated."
It seemed like everything will be returning to normal soon, as China has now already surpassed that threshold, at upwards of 86% fully vaccinated population. But, isn't China fighting sporadic outbreaks that have taken a toll on the country's almost 9 cities and counting?
False Hope
Well, I was excited as many were when I read the news that some foreign students will be able to return soon. Even though it is just for a select few or just certain countries, but that was enough to reassure many that they will be back in the near future.
But digging into the details and asking many students that I know about this recent development, I was surprised to find that none has actually received any emails.
Upon re-reading the whole news again I also found that it lacked any solid proof or official documents to back up the bold claim. In fact, the original publisher of the "story" even put a disclaimer saying that the news is "non-offical [sic]".
Which is just another way of saying "I might have even pulled this news out of my bottom."
And so it was not surprising that in a few days the bottom dropped out of international students' world.
Which should have been obvious to anyone who uses common sense, the outbreak in Xi'an was still ravaging the country and spreading to more cities, Beijing is preparing for Winter Olympics, imported Omicron cases are being reported in more cities in China, and China just decides to let international students in... Sounds logical, isn't it?
No, that's logical fallacy.
In fact, as these news kept spreading, more universities and colleges announced restricting international students' movement, discouraging them from traveling, cancel university and dormitory authorizations to students who are not on campus, etc.
These all does not sound like plans to re-open for more international students to return to campus, or are they?
Hopes Crushed
Yesterday, Zhang Wenhong, a well-respected infectious disease expert in Shanghai, slammed the notion that Omicron has caused merely an "enhanced influenza."
He warned that the variant will "bite people" and said the world should only reopen until a strong immunologic barrier is built and the fatality rate is very low.
Currently, more and more cities are bracing up for stricter regulations to control sporadic outbreaks that have so far spread to Tianjin, Henan, Xi'an, Zhejiang, etc.
And with the coming of the Chinese New Year, the regulations will not be relaxed, they will rather be tighter. But either way, let's hope for the best.
Help
Still though, I have a tingling feeling that some students might indeed have received invitation emails.
That being said, I need your help to clarify this once and for all, there is a poll below meant to check on how many students have received the said emails or if there is any who received an invitation email at all. If you are an international student stuck abroad, please help us and others by participating on the poll below.
This poll might help a lot of people to calm their nerves, please share with others so that more people can participate and so we can figure out how many have received the invitation emails, if there are any. Thanks in advance.
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