The recent trial of two Chinese students and the allegations of a student gang have raised concerns for parents abroad and may have damaging effects on the reputation of MSU in China, due in large part to negative media coverage the trial has received overseas, Chinese students said.
The story made headlines in Chinese media outlets, journalism senior Mandi Fu said, and it brought about uninformed fears and criticisms from the Chinese public because the coverage was limited to the initial story that centered around gang allegations made by the prosecutor, Fu said.
“A lot of Chinese media only translated the first article that says there’s a gang at MSU, but they didn’t really follow up,” Fu said. “That’s why a lot of people have a misunderstanding.”
Fu said though she and her friends on campus think the threat of assault from the alleged gang is laughable, her father, concerned about her safety, called to ask if she was all right and if she had been hurt by members of Chengguan.
And Fu’s father isn’t the only parent concerned.
MSU spokesman Jason Cody said both the Office for International Students and Scholars and the Office of Admissions have received calls from concerned individuals. But the university has not taken any special reactive measures and are meeting concerns as they arise, along with continuing their usual public relations campaigns, he said.
“Our folks are interacting with people who are concerned,” Cody said. ”(It’s) hard to say that they’re doing anything out of the ordinary, because this is what they do.”
Chinese students are, by far, MSU’s largest population of international students, with 4,525 in attendance this semester, making up 9.4 percent of the student body, according to data from the Office of Planning and Budgets.
Journalism sophomore Bingqing Mao said coverage by many Chinese media outlets reflects negatively on Chinese students studying abroad at MSU and elsewhere. A common misconception held in China is that those studying abroad are all wealthy, she said, and this trial only served to perpetuate those stereotypes.
“The people in China, they think those students drive nice cars and they never study and they fight,” Mao said. “It really ruined our reputation.”
For Chinese parents looking at a study abroad options for their children, Mao said some might pass over MSU because of the inflated gang allegations that raise safety and study concerns.
"(Parents want their children) to have a good environment to study,” Mao said. “If there are some students like (those in Chengguan), it just gives us a really bad impression.”
With the trial being relatively recent and the admissions cycle soon coming to a close, Cody said the events have not affected application numbers from China and the university is not concerned about it directly impacting them in the future.
“As for the gang allegations, from our perspective, there is not a gang problem at MSU within any student community,” Cody wrote in an email. “Such activity is virtually unheard of on our campus and in our community. The representation of these activities in Chinese media may inadvertently be misleading.”
