Mainland students have beaten counterparts from a number of advanced Asian countries in their Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores, often required for admission into North American universities.
Singapore students came top with an average score of 253 out of a possible 300, followed by India, the Philippines and Malaysia. But China ranks fifth, passing Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.
The average score in China was 211, compared with 206 in Hong Kong and Myanmar. Scores were calculated from the more than 235,000 Asian students who took the test between June 2000 and July last year. Of that number, 17,644 were from the mainland.
An article in the monthly journal Bo Le Leaders, co-published by executive search firm Bo Le Associates and Euromoney publication China Staff, which carried the TOEFL rankings, noted the rising prominence of Chinese professionals. 'One can only imagine how unbeatable Chinese professionals will become once they surpass the English competitiveness of other fluent Asians, such as Singaporeans,' it said.
Mainland students not only improved year by year, it said, but had consistently outperformed Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan since 1993.
The results should add to the pressure on Hong Kong to raise its standards, said Gerald Postiglione, head of the Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China at the University of Hong Kong.