Post-2020 mainland Chinese student mobility to Malaysia: trends and drivers

This article outlines the post-2020 trend of substantial increase in applications and enrolments of mainland Chinese students to Malaysia and discusses its key drivers. It argues that this trend is not exclusively driven by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and domestic push factors in China, nor is it a simple reflection of recent global shifts in international student mobility flows. Instead, it must be viewed through the lens of historical and contemporary interactions between Malaysia and China (including early Chinese immigration, China-Malaysia bilateral relations, BRI-related infrastructure projects, and lifestyle migration), alongside Malaysia's evolving higher education landscape and internationalisation efforts. It highlights two key observations about this wave of Chinese student mobility to Malaysia: (1) educational credentialism and graduate student mobility; and (2) undergraduate student mobility to Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM), an international branch campus of a public Chinese university that offers offshore education with cultural familiarity and reputability.