According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on March 31, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying hosted a regular press conference.
Reporter: At present, the global epidemic is more frequent and continues to spread. Some overseas Chinese students hope to return to China. Do you know what the Chinese government is thinking about the return of overseas students to China?
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying: The Party Central Committee always attaches great importance to and cares for Chinese students studying abroad, and has adopted a series of major measures to protect their lives and health. All relevant departments have actively taken action in accordance with the Party Central Committee’s decision-making arrangements. They are all children of the motherland and are an important force in building China’s future. In the early days of the domestic COVID-19 epidemic, the majority of overseas Chinese compatriots, especially foreign students, had their hearts on the motherland, took the initiative to donate goods and materials, and cared for and supported the domestic fight against the epidemic, which reflected their precious patriotism.
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic overseas, the state has specially arranged for temporary flights to return to Iran from Italy and Italy in an orderly manner. After the epidemic has spread in many places around the world, the party and government have always paid close attention to the health and safety of Chinese students studying abroad. According to the unified deployment of the Party Central Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed more than 280 foreign embassies and consulates to fully mobilize, establish and maintain close contact with local Chinese students studying abroad, timely understand their demands and difficulties, and help them solve various practical problems they face. The Chinese Embassy and Consulate urges the host country to take effective measures to safeguard the health, safety, and legal rights of Chinese students studying abroad. We also forward information such as the “Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of New Coronavirus in Overseas Students” and the regulations on the prevention and control of epidemic conditions in the country To strengthen communication with them in various ways, including inviting domestic medical expert groups and working groups to conduct face-to-face or video exchanges, and provide scientific and professional guidance for epidemic prevention and control. The embassy and consulate also mobilized resources from all parties to issue “health packs” containing necessary anti-epidemic materials and guidelines for epidemic prevention, to answer questions generally concerned by overseas students in various ways, and to help overseas students solve their problems.
The epidemic prevention and control is a people’s war, general war, and obstruction. Each Chinese citizen is participating in this battle in different ways, and makes his own contribution to finally winning the epidemic prevention and control obstruction. At present, the domestic epidemic situation still has the risk of rebounding, and the spread of overseas epidemics has brought new challenges to China’s epidemic prevention and control. Although the Chinese civil aviation authorities have reduced the number of international passenger flights in accordance with the epidemic situation, most of those who return to China by flight now are Chinese students studying abroad. Disease control experts advised by the World Health Organization that cross-border flows should be minimized in the current situation. We noticed that there are still some overseas students who are facing various difficulties locally and need to return to China. Yesterday, the relevant person in charge of the Civil Aviation Administration of China said that cities with concentrated demand and flight destinations capable of preventing and controlling epidemics will launch major air transport guarantee mechanisms as needed to open temporary overtime and charter flights in a timely manner.
In view of the need for domestic epidemic prevention and control, returnees should abide by various epidemic prevention regulations, including strict inspections at entry and exit and quarantine observation after entry. This is not only for the health of returnees, but also for the safety of the general public.