Photo: Xinhua
By mobilizing resources in the public health, civilian aviation and diplomatic sectors, China is taking concrete measures to provide safety support to overseas Chinese students at a time when many of them are facing difficulties abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said on Thursday.
In order to provide Chinese students much needed sanitary supplies, Chinese embassies overseas have deployed 500,000 "health packages," including 11 million masks and 500,000 disinfectant products, said Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu at a press conference held on Thursday in Beijing.
The Chinese Embassy in the UK has prepared more than 200,000 "health packages," aimed at providing all Chinese students there with one, Ma said.
China is arranging corresponding measures in a gradual and orderly manner as some overseas Chinese students in hard-hit countries are in difficulties and urgently need to return home, Ma said.
In March, China arranged nine chartered flights to countries hit hard by COVID-19, including Iran and Italy, to bring back 1,457 Chinese citizens, including overseas Chinese students, Ma said, noting that a chartered flight to the UK to bring back Chinese students left at 9:30 am Thursday Beijing time.
The flight, which departed from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, is expected to arrive in the UK Thursday evening and bring 180 Chinese students back home, Lü Erxue, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told the Global Times at the press conference on Thursday.
China's civil aviation authorities are also arranging a fourth flight to Italy to bring 180 Chinese from Milan back to Wenzhou. Out of the nine temporary flights in March, six were to Iran and three to Italy, Lü said.
Of the total 1.6 million oversea Chinese students, 1.42 million are still overseas, with most of them choosing to stay where they are, Ma said.
As of Tuesday, among 36 overseas Chinese students confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, 11 have been discharged from hospital, said Vice Minister of Education Tian Xuejun at the press conference.
