Around 27,200 Chinese nationals chose to return and work in
China after finishing schooling abroad at their own expense in
2005, up 47.9 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of
Education said in Beijing on Monday.
The ministry's spokesman Wang Xuming told a press conference
that though China saw a slight annual increase, or 2.1 percent, of
the number of Chinese studying abroad at their own expense last
year, the number of those who wanted to return mushroomed.
Altogether 118,500 Chinese studied abroad in 2005, including
nearly 4,000 funded by the government, some 8,000 dispatched by
their employers, and 106,500 at their own expense, according to
statistics from the ministry.
"The booming economy, increasing opportunity to start their own
business, and preferential policies for the returned students have
drawn more Chinese students home," said Zhang Xiuqin,
secretary-general of the China Scholarship Council (CSC) under the
ministry.
About 933,400 Chinese had gone abroad to study between 1978 and
2005, and 232,900 have returned, the ministry said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2006)
