China’s zero-Covid policy: Sri Lankan group latest to arrive as borders open to Asian students after two years
- Special chartered flight from Colombo arrives days after first batch of Pakistani students makes way back since March 2020
- As Asian envoys press for more students to be allowed to return, the way forward of those from the West remains unclear
Tweeting about their arrival on a “special” Sri Lankan Airlines chartered flight, the Chinese embassy said it would continue to work closely with authorities [in both countries] to help more students “return to their universities as soon as possible”.
In April, the Sri Lankan embassy in Beijing said their Chinese counterparts in Colombo had “finalised two groups of students to return to China” and that more students were “being processed to return”.
This came after another special chartered flight on Monday returned the first batch of Pakistani students to Xian, in northwestern Shaanxi province, according to Pakistan’s The Express Tribune daily.
According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, the group of 90 will undergo 14 days of quarantine in Xian before returning to their universities in different Chinese cities.
Their return was part of a pilot programme agreed upon during a meeting last month between Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Bhutto Zardari made a special request for return of students for on-campus studies, the Pakistani foreign ministry said.
