Forums > Living in Kunming > Huntsman - Fraud?? Is it possible that all these limits on visas are to discourage so many Chinese students from applying to American universities? Clearly, there's some sort of conflict of interest...the universities would love to have all of these Chinese students paying full tuition (often made by corrupt parents here), and the US government is worried about educating an entire generation's worth of wealthy young Chinese, who probably have every intention to bring back the skills they'll learn to China in order to benefit their mother country.
I've been helping Chinese students to apply for US F1 visas for years, and in my experience there are several aspects about this situation that I've always found rather alarming (please keep in mind this does not apply to ALL of them):
1. Their parents are, 98% of the time, government officials in high positions either in Kunming or elsewhere in Yunnan (many from places like Gejiu, Yuxi, Baoshan, Wenshan, Lincang, etc.)
2. The vast majority of these students have horrible English skills, and many of them pay for a year of language training at the university they wish to attend - this costs as much as tuition for a regular student, and if they pass their English exams at the end, they're in.
3. More than 3/4 of the documents I'd examine and help organize were horrible fakes, or entirely unbelievable. Surprisingly, most of the students were open about this and told me directly they were all fake (TIC?).
4. Of those documents, most of the nonsense ones were when their parents in government were making a combined RMB 70,000 per year, but could afford nearly RMB 300,000 per year to send their children to top schools in America.
5. In addition, every middle school, high school, and university in this province is apparently ready and willing to produce fake credentials for students either with money or connections. I've looked at High School transcripts and those from Yunnan University where the applying student had an average score of 98% in all of their courses. ALL of them.
The worst part was that these students were getting into GREAT universities without having to take IELTS or TOEFL. Rather, they got around it by taking a year of English courses, which would typically cost anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000 per year.
I was speaking to a friend of mine who's an attorney in New York the other week, and his firm deals with a lot of Chinese clients buying property in the United States. Now, more than ever, more and more Chinese are trying to get to the United States despite our apparent economic failures.
The vast majority of Chinese students applying to study in the United States simply don't deserve to be there. It's a shame, as American students struggling with loans and crippling debt have to compete with the sons and daughters of Chinese officials literally swimming in money. Maybe it says more about the US than it does about China?
Yunnan news roundup
Posted byIt's called a satchel. Indiana Jones used one.
Kunming air quality ranks number two among Chinese cities
Posted byWow.
I mean it's quite an accomplishment, but to my eyes over the years it seems to have gotten worse rather than better.
What with hundreds of thousands of newer cars over the years, how does this happen? Does that fall under this 2.5 particulate matter?
Did they happen to mention which city had the overall worst air quality in China?
Report: Cafe bomber confesses to bus bombing
Posted byIf this case is like many others in Kunming, it will be quite some time before we hear any solid information regarding the case.
The police have a huge job on their hands now, and are certainly feeling the pressure of having to explain (or attempt to explain) what exactly happened that morning, and why.
I must say I'm really surprised at the lack of attention this has received in the national news. Having a potentially western-targeted attack anywhere in China is huge, and could be a very ominous sign of things to come. Let's all hope it was just a random act of aggression as Lester has pointed out.
Report: Cafe bomber confesses to bus bombing
Posted byThe miracle is that no one else was hurt.
Like most of you, I'm of course skeptical about the police killing two birds with one stone and asking a man with severed legs if he had committed other crimes before dying...but that's the official story and unfortunately there isn't any more information to go on at this time.
Just to clarify, isn't an ammonium nitrate bomb essentially a fertilizer bomb? I may be wrong on this but I think it is...in which case it's doubly surprising nobody else was hurt, as bombs like that are incredibly powerful.