Figures released by the Chinese government departments have
shown that China is becoming one of the world's most popular
education and employment destinations.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Education showed that in
2005, 141,000 overseas students came to China to study, up 27.28
percent from the previous year, with 86,679 studying Mandarin
(Putonghua).
"The year 2005 saw China attracting the largest number of
overseas students since the People's Republic of China was founded
in 1949, thanks to the country's stable political environment,
rapid economic growth and growing international influence," said
Zhang Xiuqin, secretary-general of the China Scholarship
Council.
Hong Changwoo, a South Korean student at the Beijing Language
and Culture University, told Xinhua that a large number of young
people in South Korea are keen on studying Mandarin because more
and more companies require their employees to be able to speak
Chinese.
Zhang said the residential environment, quality of education,
and medical and social insurance provided by Chinese institutes of
higher learning for overseas students were of international
standards. Meanwhile, tuition fees for overseas students are much
lower than in most other countries.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education showed that from 1950
to 2005, China received a total of 884,315 overseas students.
But Zhang acknowledged that problems still exist. For example,
the Chinese government has approved in principle overseas students
applying for part-time jobs in China but there are no regulations
on how many hours an overseas student can work a day or which
vocations or industries are open to overseas students.
Meanwhile, statistics from the Ministry of Labor and Social
Security showed that by the end of 2005, more than 150,000 overseas
employees had applied for work in China; 70 percent were employed
by foreign-invested companies, and a large number of them were from
Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the United States and several
European countries.
(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2006)