THE COUNTRY'S PRESTIGIOUS TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY has come under fire for its 2017 international undergraduate admission requirements, which many have criticized as being "preferential" because they only require foreign applicants under the age of 25 to have a high-school diploma and pass the Level 5 of the HSK language test. Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, commented on Wednesday:

That Tsinghua University eased its requirements for the admission of foreign applicants has sparked continuing controversy online.

Many have found it difficult to believe that China's top university has made it so much easier for foreign students to be enrolled.