Chinese state media accuses Australia of delaying student visas

The Communist Party-owned newspaper claims Chinese students are paying the price for recent diplomatic tensions

The University of Sydney Source: AAP

Chinese state-owned media has accused Canberra of delaying visas for Chinese students over diplomatic tensions between the two nations and a misplaced fear of espionage.

The state-owned Global Times newspaper also warned the Chinese Scholarship Council would now allow government-funded students to “switch to a different country” if their visa delays persisted.

“A group of Chinese PhD candidates and visiting scholars with offers from Australian universities have been waiting for their visas for over half a year, an abnormally long period,” the newspaper wrote.

“If their visas are not granted soon, their scholarships will expire. The incident has severely affected their lives; some had turned down other offers or quit jobs.”

“There is speculation that the visa trouble is related to recent tensions in Sino-Australian relations. There are also claims that Chinese spies have penetrated Australian communities.”

Australia’s embassy in China released a statement on March 16 saying there were a “small number of postgraduate research students and research scholars” who had experienced delays, which was “causing stress to some individuals”.

SBS News has contacted the Home Affairs department, which is responsible for visa control, for a response.

A spokesperson for the department told the ABC it granted 2,630 subclass 408 and 80,423 subclass 500 visas to Chinese nationals at a grant rate of 99 and 97 per cent respectively.

In a separate Global Times opinion piece, a writer said “fear and speculation” about Chinese spying in Australia had led to the “ugly consequence” of student visa delays.

Diplomatic relations between Australia and its largest trading partner have soured in recent months, after the Turnbull government announced new laws to counter foreign interference in domestic politics.

Australia’s top diplomat in Beijing was summoned to the foreign ministry to explain the laws, while Chinese diplomats accused Australia of “Cold War thinking” that jeopardised the relationship between the two nations.