Studying abroad should have been the starting point of change. When a person goes out and sees a different world, they should bring back new ideas and new possibilities.

But in the Chinese context, studying abroad has become synonymous with servility. A hundred years ago, they were subjects of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. They ran to Japan, ran to Europe and America, and returned wearing the cloak of "new knowledge," but what they really wanted was to rise in officialdom and get rich. When the Cultural Revolution came, many were purged, dying more tragically than anyone else. The so-called "studying abroad to save the country" turned out to be nothing but a self-deceiving illusion.

Today, this group has changed their rhetoric, but not their essence. They play the role of "China's future" overseas, but are actually the regime's external propaganda agents. Domestically, they are defenders of vested interests; externally, they are whitewashers of authoritarianism. They talk about "global perspective," but at their core, they are nothing but instinctive sycophants.

A hundred years have passed, time and space have changed, but virtue has not. The role of international students has never truly belonged to "reformers," but has repeatedly chosen to become the lubricant that maintains the machine. They should have brought change, but instead copied themselves into another generation of sycophants.