Black and White Cat

“Ha! Your Western media’s up to its tricks again!” said my political editor with a mixture of mockery and satisfaction, laying particular stress on those two words “Western media.”

“What’s the story?” I asked.

“According your Western media, all foreign students are going to have to get out of Beijing in the summer. According to the Western media, that is.”

“Hang on a minute. Which ‘Western media’?”

“All of it. So you’ll have to pack your bags. According to the Western media.”

Three things: One, I’m not a student, so even if this story were true I wouldn’t have to leave. Two, I get on very well with this editor and he was just baiting me. And three, although I put that conversation in quotation marks I did not record it so I have no real certainty that those were our exact words.

But what is the story? And is it true or is it a repeat of the non-existent Bible ban?

EPA quotes Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

China plans to order all foreign students to leave the country before the Olympic Games in August, strictly regulate the issuing of business and tourist visas, and deport refugees, sources said on Thursday.

‘Even if you have to continue your studies in September, you need to leave Beijing in July and August,’ a spokeswoman for Beijing University told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The spokeswoman said the two-month gap applies to all universities in Beijing and was ordered by ‘higher authorities’ because of the Olympics.

Shanghaiist is somewhat skeptical and suspects that foreign students’ problems might be limited to tighter visa restrictions.

Xinhua is adamant:

Overseas media reports that foreign students in China would have to leave the country during the August Olympic Games were “totally fabricated”, the Ministry of Education said here Friday.

“Recently, some foreign media say China requires foreign students to leave during the Games. It completely goes against the facts,” ministry spokesman Wang Xuming said.

Relevant departments and universities “have never asked foreign students to leave China during the Olympics and Paralympics. During that time, foreign students could stay and some of them would join volunteer services”.

He added international cooperation and exchanges in the educational field would proceed as usual, including accepting foreign students who would come to study in China.

So who do you believe? The Ministry of Education or Deutsche Presse-Agentur? The Global Times concluded that this was another deliberate German attack on the Beijing Olympics. Slightly exaggerated, perhaps. But the Global Times did do the obvious thing - ask Peking University:

“It’s a very strange thing. We didn’t know we were going to do this ourselves until we read the report!” When the Global Times interviewed a member of staff at the overseas students office at Peking University, the worker was clearly astonished, telling the reporter: “Peking University’s summer program for overseas students will go ahead as planned. It hasn’t been canceled at all. And the Peking University spokeswoman mentioned in the report simply doesn’t exist. We’ve only got one spokesperson and he’s a man.”

So, it would seem that the story is probably not true - at least as far as summer students are concerned. But everyone seems to agree that visa rules are being enforced with greater vigor. Anyway, we won’t have to wait long to be sure. Either foreign students will be enrolled in summer courses or they won’t. Meanwhile, I think I should say that most of the “Western media” appears to be treating the report with caution. Blame those perfidious Germans, not me. (Note to Germans: I’m joking.)