[Commentary] From July 6th, the British Visa Application Centers in Wuhan and Xi'an will reopen. At this point, all 15 visa application centers in the UK will be restarted.
A few days ago, British Ambassador to China Wu Baina said in an interview with a China News Agency reporter that the restart of all British visa application centers in China is an important milestone in the resumption of personnel exchanges between the two countries and reflects the resilience of the UK-China relationship.
[Same period] British Ambassador to China Wu Baina
Today I am happy to announce that from July 6th, our visa application centers in Wuhan and Xi'an will also reopen, and all 15 British visa application centers will be up and running from today. We are working towards the normalization of bilateral personnel exchanges, which is a manifestation of the resilience and long-term development of bilateral relations.
[Commentary] It is reported that the reopened UK Visa Application Centre will give priority to returning applicants’ passports and process visa applications before the closure of the Visa Application Centre and before the global travel restrictions.
Wu Baina said that in 2019, the British Visa Application Center in China received about 100,000 applications from Chinese students to study in the UK. Affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, she thinks it will decline this year.
[Same period] British Ambassador to China Wu Baina
I don’t think this year’s figures can be as high as last year’s. The reasons are well known. But we very much hope that the Chinese people will prepare to travel to the UK to study, work and trade.
[Commentary] After the outbreak of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, discrimination against Chinese students abroad has increased. Regarding this phenomenon, the British ambassador to China Wu Baina said that the British government attaches great importance to the rights and interests of international students from various countries and is actively addressing such issues.
[Same period] British Ambassador to China Wu Baina
Law enforcement agencies in the UK are responsible for handling these cases, and many universities in the UK are taking very strict measures to ensure that international students are more popular. I am very confident that Chinese students can still rest assured that they will continue to regard the UK as their primary choice for studying abroad.
[Commentary] As China's domestic epidemic prevention and control situation continues to improve, from June 1, the United Kingdom began to reopen the visa application centers in stages, as well as some English test centers in various cities in China.
Reporter Xu Pengpeng reports from Beijing
Editor in charge: [Ji Xiang]