China is targeting French students as it tries to attract more Westerners to study in the country and counter negative perceptions.
In June, China announced a new initiative that aims to deepen educational cooperation with France by attracting more French students and young people to study at the country’s universities.
The new scheme follows president Xi Jinping’s pledge in May to increase the number of French students in China to more than 10,000 and to double European youth exchanges over the next three years.
More than 1,500 French students are currently enrolled at Chinese institutions, while there are over 46,000 Chinese students in France, according to China’s education ministry.
Relatively few details have been shared about how China plans to boost full-time student numbers, but the initiative will include supporting joint summer schools between Chinese and European universities and increasing opportunities for young people from France to learn Chinese.
The policy was launched after a Sino-French education conference took place in Paris, attended by China’s education minister and the French higher education minister. This year also marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
While Mr Xi has indicated a desire to attract more students from across western Europe, the focus on France reflects warmer relations between the two nations, in comparison with the China hesitancy felt across much of the region.
“I don’t think that China has a particular interest in recruiting from France,” said Wei Liu, a programme administrator at the University of Alberta International and a higher education researcher.
“Chinese universities have had an easy time recruiting from the Global South countries, particularly along the Belt and Road Initiative routes. It is important to China. But to achieve the international diplomacy goal, to reverse negative views about China, China has a particular interest in recruiting from developed Global North countries.”
On a five-day tour of Europe in May, France was the only western European country Mr Xi visited, where he met his counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. The two countries are also collaborating on science, launching a jointly developed spacecraft into orbit in June.
This “may show that France, among all western European countries, is willing to engage with China in the midst of the de-risking discourse toward China”, Dr Liu said.
Richard Coward, founder and chief executive at China Admissions, agreed that China isn’t solely interested in France. “There’s been a drop in students from Western countries in the last few years, and they’re looking to strengthen ties and attract more talent and build up exchanges from everywhere,” he said.
However, China may find itself trapped in a vicious cycle – while the country is trying to counter negative perceptions among Western populations by attracting more students, Europeans may be reluctant to visit because of their bleak views of the country.
Added to this challenge is the reputation of Chinese education. “Very few European students consider going to study a degree programme in China, except for the areas of language and culture,” said Dr Liu.
