22 Chinese Students Have Been Blocked from Returning to China

The news of 22 Chinese students from the U.S. becoming stranded at Zurich Airport on their way back to China has drawn public attention. The students bought expensive tickets to return to China, but were told they could not board the plane while transferring in Switzerland. China’s Civil Aviation Administration announced a “Five-One” policy on March 29, which means, in each foreign country, each existing Chinese airline is to operate only one route, and no more than one flight per week. The airfares have also skyrocketed as a result. Many overseas Chinese who wish or have to return to China find themselves in a hopeless situation. The 22 students planned to travel from major cities in the U.S. to New York, and from there fly to Switzerland on Swissair, then transfer to Singapore and fly back to China via Xiamen Airlines to the Singapore Changi Airport. The students arrived at Zurich Airport from New York on the afternoon of Jun. 2 on Swissair flight LX0015, but were told they could not board their next flight as they were preparing to transfer to Singapore. As of Jun. 3, some of the students had been deported back to the U.S., while six were still stranded at Zurich Airport because their visas had expired. A female student at the Swiss airport described to The Epoch Times what had happened to her over the past few days. The students found out at the airport that flight LX196 was bound for Beijing on Jun. 3, but the Chinese Communist Party’s embassy told them it was a "cargo plane." Arriving at the gate half-hour before the flight took off, the students saw more than a dozen Swiss embassy personnel boarding the plane and could only watch it take off. So far, officials at the CCP embassy have offered no plans to repatriate the students, only to urging them to return to the U.S.