Chinese students in the US now seen as cheating playboys

• 2015-06-11

Chinese graduates at Columbia University in New York, May 20. (File photo/Xinhua)

Chinese students in the US have acquired a reputation as children of rich families, driving luxury cars and cheating in exams, a far cry from their previous image as industrious and studious, reports China's Global Times.

Last year, 8,000 Chinese students in the US were dismissed by their schools, 80% of them for substandard academic performance or breaches of ethics.

Coincidentally, on May 28, the US Department of Justice announced its decision to sue 15 Chinese citizens or students for allegedly hiring others to take exams in their stead, according to the report.

Chen Hang, chief development officer of WholeRen Education, said that the image of Chinese students in the US has plummeted, especially in the past five years. The character of the students coming over has changed fundamentally and a large percentage of applicants include very young students and students of mediocre quality, according to Global Times.

"While most Chinese going to the US for advanced study were top-teir in earlier days, nowadays those coming over are much more average," said Wang Hui, director of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank.

The case is especially apparent for teenage Chinese students in the US, many of whom do not have their parents to supervise them. As a result, they can go off the rails with their behavior, girls as well as boys, said Deng Hong, who studied in the US in 1980s.

Many Chinese students cannot keep up with their classes, either from a lack of English skills or because they have overindulged the ample free time afforded by student life in the US, the report said.

The change in the makeup of Chinese students has been seen since 2007-2008, when the US greatly relaxed the issuance of student visas to allow Chinese nationals to study at high schools and community colleges rather than just regular universities, leading to surge of visas for Chinese teenagers to study at senior high. In 2008, there were 60 applications for high school. Now the average is 27,000 a year.