Meanwhile, an increasing number of the overseas students are now returning to China, believing they can get the opportunities they want in their homeland. About 432-thousand came home in 2016, twenty-thousand more than the previous year. Most of the returnees were employed in the IT Communications and financial industries. Meanwhile, an increasing number of Chinese are still choosing to study abroad. In 2016, it was an option taken by more than half a million students -- up nearly four percent on the previous year.

Now, while the growth rate is beginning to level out somewhat, China still remains the world's largest exporter of international students. Between 1978 and 2016, almost 4.6 million Chinese went overseas for educational purposes; 1.3 million of them -- or about 30 percent of that figure -- are currently studying abroad.