BEIJING, Aug 15 — The Malaysian and Chinese governments have cooperated very well in efforts to get Malaysian students back to China in the near future to resume their studies, says Malaysian Ambassador to China Raja Datuk Nushirwan Zainal Abidin.
He said Malaysia also understood the present measures taken by the Chinese government due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the country.
“Obviously this is a situation that we need to address, in terms of the measures taken by the Chinese government, (and) obviously we are in support of it because they know their internal situation best.
“They (Chinese government) have been very forthcoming in terms of letting our students in, recognising that this has to be done in a phased way to address concerns or issues that they have in their country,” he said in a press conference here.
He said Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah also had discussed the issue with his counterpart Wang Yi in December last year when the former came to China.
“And you will recall that in December (2021) when Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah came to China there was an announcement that Malaysian students will be able to come to China to resume their studies and this process has already begun,” he said.
Saifuddin was reported to have said that there were about 8,000 Malaysian students studying in China, but they had to return home when COVID-19 began to spread in the country last year.
The students are pursuing various fields of study including science and technology, language and traditional medicine.
Earlier Raja Nushirwan officiated the Malaysia Truly Asia Festival 2022, organised by the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing, and supported by the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (MAYCHAM), a non-profit social organisation that aims to promote the trade and cultural exchange between the two countries.
The two-week festival which aims to raise awareness of the Malaysian culture here is being held in conjunction with Malaysia’s 65th National Day celebration.
