Indian students conditionally allowed to return to China

China has announced plans to permit the return of "some" Indian students stranded in India for over two years following the visa and flight restrictions imposed by Beijing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Friday told a media briefing in Beijing that "China attaches high importance to Indian students' concerns about returning to China for studies. We have shared with the Indian sides the procedures and experience of other countries' students returning to China". "Actually, the work for Indian students' return has already been started. All that remains to be done is for the Indian side to provide the list of students who really need to come back to China," he said.

Press Release: RETURN OF INDIAN STUDENTS TO CHINA

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— India in China (@EOIBeijing) April 29, 2022

Over 23,000 Indian students, mostly studying medicine in Chinese colleges, are stuck in India after they returned home as the coronavirus broke out in China in December 2019. They could not return to China due to the restrictions imposed by the Chinese government to arrest the spread of the contagion. Besides the students, hundreds of families of Indians working in China too were stuck back home in view of China cancelling visas and flights from India.