Chinese students stopped from using charging stations reserved for foreigners
A university in Central China is mired in controversies after its Chinese students were stopped from using certain on-campus electric vehicle charging stations that the university specially reserved for foreigners.
An anonymous student from Wuhan University in Central China’s Hubei Province wrote online on Tuesday that a campus guard told him to “get out” for being a Chinese student when he was about to charge his electric bike at a charging station in Fengyuan, an international student dormitory area on campus.
The student’s incident sparked anger among Chinese netizens who criticized the school’s unfair treatment of Chinese students, with many netizens comparing the incident to the sign, “No dogs and Chinese allowed” hung at a park entry in Shanghai when Western countries colonized the city before 1949.
The international education school of Wuhan University on Thursday admitted the incident but blamed the guard and the real estate company that manages the charging stations for mishandling the situation.
The school also said it had never given directives to stop Chinese students from using the charging stations and that it will improve services to the students.
“The cost for charging at the stations was deducted from the accommodation fee paid by international students,” said a statement released by the school.
More than 1,400 international students stay in the Fengyuan area. Foreign students own more than 400 electric vehicles, according to the school’s statement.
The statement said there are two public charging stations open to all students in the university, which began operations in November 2017, and the university is planning to build several more public stations within this year.
“Many universities in China give international students preferential treatment, which is wrong,” Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday.
“A university as an open place should treat all students equally. Facilities should be available to all students, and special groups should not exist,” Xiong said.