A dispute between Canada and China might put Chinese international students at risk of being pulled out of the country, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Services.
The diplomatic rift began after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, a senior executive from Chinese tech company Huawei, in December last year in Vancouver.
Wanzhou was detained in Canada at the request of the United States, on suspicion of violating Iran trade sanctions. The Chinese government is fighting for the detainment to be reversed.
The report said three of the country’s biggest universities would face a financial strain if China decides to pull its students.
Some Chinese international students say they are not concerned about being forced to leave Canada.
The Charlatan reached out to the Chinese embassy for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
Jingyan Wang, a first-year student at Carleton University, said she has not heard anything from the embassy yet.
“If they suggest for us to come back, [I] might go back,” she said.
Lin Zhu, another exchange student at Carleton, said she is not worried about Chinese students being pulled.
“There are a lot of Chinese students in Canada, so I do not think we can be pulled from universities,” she said.
International student tuition is a significant source of revenue for universities, as it is typically higher than domestic students, averaging $34,000 per year compared to $13,000 per year for domestic tuition.
According to the report, as of 2018, there are 80,000 Chinese students with study permits in Canada.
Xinyi Li, a second-year student at the University of Toronto, said she doesn’t think this dispute will impact Chinese students in Canada because the issue mainly involves the U.S. and China.
“The main battlefield is in China and the U.S. . . . I don’t think it is properly rational for Canada to openly side with the U.S. and go against China,” she said. “Canada doesn’t have anything to do with it and shouldn’t make things more complicated.”
Yuwen Song, another first-year Carleton student, said her family at home in China are concerned about their children’s safety in Canada since the news.
“My parents think Canada is dangerous because it is very different from China,” Song said.
“They told me to be careful and to not go outside when they heard [about the dispute] in the news,” she said.
Wang added that her parents are more worried about her living as a Chinese student in Canada than before because her parents “do not know what will happen with the political issue, so they will be more worried about me.”
She said she has been impacted by the dispute because her sister decided not to visit her in Canada after hearing the news.
“My sister wanted to come to Canada and she saw in the news China is warning people to be cautious,” she said. “She might come to Canada when the issue is solved.”
Image by Tim Austen
