Original: Tang Jianguang
Yesterday morning, Levi finished the screening test and arrived at the designated hotel in Tianfu New Area for centralized observation.
I drove to deliver some daily necessities and found that the hotel was very close to home and the surrounding area was very convenient. We can order takeout and eat and drink without worry. Most parents and students in the parent group are satisfied with the entry process and services in Chengdu, and they are quite reassured and at ease.
However, in the evening, the Civil Aviation Administration suddenly issued a notice: requiring the capacity of international flights of Chinese and foreign airlines to be reduced from 25,000 people per day to 5,000 people, a reduction of 80%. Although Levi has been lucky to return to China, this government action means that tens of thousands of international students will be stranded in a foreign country.
A friend asked me in the past few days whether her nephew in the United States should come home. When she saw this news, she told me that her nephew's flight had been canceled twice, and she bought another ticket yesterday, which is likely to be canceled again. She was so angry that she cried for a while and didn't know what to do.
This is the common situation of many international student families.
How many Chinese international students are currently studying abroad? According to the Caixin website quoting the Ministry of Education's data in 2018, the number is 1.53 million, and it is said that this data may be missing some "small international students". Since the outbreak of the epidemic overseas, most of them have returned to China, but how many people are planning to return to China has not been counted, but it should be in the tens of thousands.
Returning home for international students (picture from The Paper)
The road home is like crossing a battlefield
Let me talk about Levi's experience of going home.
On January 20th, Levi returned to the United States as planned from Chengdu. Two days later, the Wuhan epidemic broke out, causing panic across the country, but we managed to avoid it.
According to the academic calendar of the College of William & Mary where Levi is studying, the summer vacation starts on May 14th, so we had already booked the return ticket. The spring break had not ended yet, and the school suddenly announced on March 11th that it would switch to online classes starting from March 23rd. At this time, the epidemic in the United States had just begun, and we assessed that the medical system in the United States could still withstand it, especially in Williamsburg, where William & Mary is located, the possibility of an outbreak was small, so there was no need to panic. But it is expected that the epidemic will continue, and the school will not be able to resume classes this semester, and most students have already left campus. It is not helpful to stay at school and take online courses, so we booked a return ticket for March 29th.
However, on March 18th, a spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention said, "It is recommended that international students should temporarily suspend returning home unless absolutely necessary." It sounds like advice rather than a ban, but in my personal judgment, judging from the tone, it is not impossible for the future to "close the door", and if you don't return to China as soon as possible, you may be stranded, and it is unpredictable how long it will take. The atmosphere became tense.
On March 19th, the school announced that all students should leave by the 25th, because there was a gathering of the epidemic on the Eastern Peninsula of Virginia where the school is located, and the school did not have medical facilities to ensure the safety of teachers and students. At this time, there were still dozens of Chinese students staying in Williamsburg, and they had to find their own accommodation. We don't have relatives in the United States, and if Levi is stranded in the United States, he just turned 18 and cannot live alone in a hotel for several months. So we quickly grabbed tickets and kept refreshing various travel platforms that night, and luckily grabbed a ticket from Washington to Los Angeles to Taipei to Chengdu. Other tickets were priced at tens of thousands.
On March 21st, we departed from Washington. Although it took more than 30 hours of flying and transferring, we finally returned to Chengdu. We underwent a 6-hour quarantine at the airport, and then we were transferred to a hotel for screening and observation. Two days later, we were transferred to a hotel for centralized observation just over ten minutes away from home. In any case, we finally returned home. Both parents and children still feel lucky and relieved. They are especially satisfied with the quarantine and arrangements in Chengdu. For the sake of everyone's safety, they are willing to cooperate.
Levi is considered smooth and lucky. On March 23rd, there was a news that was heartbreaking: a 12-year-old boy returned to China alone from Madrid, Spain. From boarding to arriving at the capital airport, he wore masks, hats, and other protective equipment throughout the entire journey. After more than 20 hours of long-distance flight without eating or drinking, he arrived in Beijing in a state of dehydration.
Whether it is international students or other citizens returning to China, whether it is because they believe that it is safer in China or because schools are closed and they have nowhere to go, they all want to return to their own homes. Which child would not want to return home at this time? Which parent would refuse their own child?
With the new regulations of the Civil Aviation Administration, many families are even more unlucky. The recent air tickets are extremely expensive, ranging from three to six hundred thousand, and it is extremely difficult to grab them. A friend's child is in Cambridge, UK. Originally planned to return to China in June for summer vacation, the school suddenly required them to leave. The recent return tickets have already reached four to five hundred thousand. They had to pay a deposit of ten thousand yuan first, and the intermediary did not guarantee that they could buy the ticket. So they gave up buying the return ticket on April 12th. But now, with the new plan to reduce flights by 80%, many flights will be canceled. If Levi returns as planned on March 29th, it may be among the canceled flights. And for more children who have already booked or have not booked tickets, the return date is even more unpredictable.
When the children were ready to board the ship, the motherland withdrew the gangway
Although Levi has already returned home, he is considered one of the lucky passengers who boarded the bus before it closed, but what about the many international students who have not yet returned home?
On March 16th, Levi, who was relatively calm, suddenly became uneasy: "My classmates said that if I don't go home now, I can only wait until next year." At that time, I confidently comforted her: No country in the world, including China, restricts its citizens from returning home, so you can come back at any time."
Now it seems that I am more naive than the children. With an 80% reduction in flights, I cannot agree with such a government decision that indirectly restricts citizens from returning home and keeps their own children outside the country.
First, the vast majority of incoming personnel are Chinese citizens, and a considerable proportion of them are international students. Based on the reason of "resolutely curbing the high-risk situation of the new crown pneumonia epidemic from overseas", using control of capacity as a means, refusing to allow their own citizens to enter the country does not reflect the country's responsibility and care for its citizens.
For comparison, after the escalation of the epidemic, countries such as Singapore, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the United States called on their citizens to return home as soon as possible and provided as much convenience as possible. For example, Canada provides loans of up to 5,000 Canadian dollars to citizens in difficulty, and Germany plans to bring back 120,000 German citizens stranded overseas through cooperation with travel agencies and Lufthansa, with an expected return of 10,000 Germans per day.
After the outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan, most countries organized the evacuation of their nationals, including charter flights to evacuate them (as of February 11th, only Pakistan, Nepal, Cambodia, and some African countries had some citizens and international students stranded in Wuhan). At that time, many Chinese people believed that the evacuation was not "righteous" enough, and many of the evacuated nationals became the first batch of infected people and sources of infection in their own countries. However, these countries did not refuse their citizens to return home because of this, nor did they find protests or complaints from their own people because of this, because this is the duty of the country.
Second, due to the spread of the epidemic in the main destination countries for studying abroad, schools and dormitories have been closed, and domestic and international students have been required to leave. These international students number in the tens of thousands, most of them are just adults or minors, and they have been stranded abroad for a long time. Can parents feel at ease? Can the country bear it? Don't these decision-makers have children?
Third, although there is indeed great pressure on entry quarantine at present, with nearly 25,000 people returning to China every day, there were only 54 imported cases on March 26th. This is not the same level as during the peak of the epidemic, and there are not many cases of transmission after entry in recent days, which shows that the current situation can be controlled. With more than 20,000 people being tested and quarantined every day nationwide, and the quarantine being self-funded, does the government have the ability to cope? For comparison, as of March 26th, Germany has increased its testing rate for the new coronavirus to 500,000 times per week, which is an average of 70,000 times per day. As the world's second strongest country, China also has rich experience in epidemic prevention and control. Can't it really be done?
Fourth, we understand that the whole country has experienced a difficult battle against the epidemic and has just recovered. Therefore, in order to protect the majority of people, it is not legitimate to give up helping a few people, even if this action is applauded by the protected 1.4 billion people. Moreover, tens of thousands of young people and minors are being rejected by their motherland. As the Global Times said, most of the international students will return to participate in the construction after they graduate, and this major epidemic will leave them with unforgettable memories and shape their understanding of important concepts such as life and country. When they are most helpless, the appearance of the motherland is more effective than any education for them. To prevent them from feeling abandoned, today's China should strive to achieve this.
In times of crisis, government decisions cannot take care of everyone, but when making decisions, it is not justifiable to be self-righteous with a simple sentence "according to the requirements of the State Council's joint prevention and control of the epidemic." Instead, it is necessary to communicate with the people openly and honestly about the current problems, decision-making basis, and how the people need to cooperate, in order to jointly find better solutions.
In fact, parents and students are also cautious about risks, and they support and cooperate with necessary measures taken by the government. There are also better options available now: for example, commercial charter flights can be used to solve the risk of transfers, and returning to China can be done in a staggered and orderly manner to alleviate short-term pressure, and so on.
The so-called country is nothing more than a community formed by a group of people who are willing to shelter each other in times of crisis; the so-called community of shared destiny is about mutual responsibility, not just self-preservation. In any case, when a country or a group of people make choices, they should first start from protecting the weak and children. This is the conscience of the country and the instinct of human beings.
Perhaps a few months later, when students from various countries gather together and talk about their experiences during the epidemic, students from other countries will say, "My country sent a charter flight to bring me back to my home country." What should our children say? - Our motherland is worried that I will spread the virus and told me not to come back?
Children are the purest patriots. When they go abroad, it is also the first time they open their eyes to the world and experience the "motherland" from slogans to reality. Treat them well, it is also to maintain the image of the "motherland" in their hearts and maintain the emotional connection with the motherland.
The epidemic will eventually pass, and the earth will not be destroyed. 2020 will be an unforgettable memory for us and our children. What kind of memories will this epidemic leave them? Is it the warmth of sharing hardships and helping each other, or is it the catchy phrase "The motherland is building without you, and the poison will spread thousands of miles the fastest"?
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