Classification of the International Schools

1. School for Children of Foreign Diplomats

According to Provisional Regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC and the National Education Committee of the P.R.C on the Establishment of the School for Children of Foreign Diplomats by Foreign Embassy, the foreign embassy can establish the school for children of foreign diplomats. Later, the foreign consulates are approved to register school for their children referring to the Provisional Regulations. Therefore, this kind of schools are called School for Children of Foreign Diplomats in the later government documents.

In 1973, American government set liaison office in Beijing. (At that time, the United States had not established diplomatic relations with Chinese goverment yet.) At the very beginning, the school for children of the liaison office members was on the fifth floor of the apartment in Sanlitun, Beijing, where was the gangway of the hall for the electrical elevator between two apartments. The school had only 8 students and 2 teachers. In 1980, the embassies of the five countries, American, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, cooperated in setting the International School of Beijing (IBS, now the Chinese of it is 北京顺义国际学校, pinyin: bei2jing0shun4yi4guo2ji4xue2xiao4, namely Beijing Shunyi International School). The school was formally registered as the school for children of foreign diplomats in 1988. At the end of 1997, the school transformed to the school for children of foreign nationals. In September 2003, the school passed the NCCT authentication. By 2005, the school has a campus occupying 33 acres and 1, 980 students from 54 countries all over the world.

The students of the school for children of foreign diplomats should be the children of the foreign diplomats and some privileges would be given by the Chinese government, such as the staff members of the school could get their salary of working at school without paying the individual income tax. After getting the approval of the provincial educational and administrative department, the school can also enroll the students living in China and holding the nationality of its own country or other countries except mainland China. Since Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are outbound, the school can also enroll the students with a nationality of these three regions of China.

In 2000, Shanghai local tax bureau asked the SAT (State Administration of Taxation) for instructions about the tax administration affairs of the school for children of American foreign diplomats. The SAT replied that the privilege of tax exemption should be retracted by Chinese government, since the school enrolled some students who were not the children of the foreign diplomats in China.

2. School for Children of Foreign Nationals
According to the Interim Administrative Measures of the State Education Committee of PRC on the Establishment of the School for Children of Foreign Nationals (1995), the legally established foreign organizations, foreign-owned enterprises in China, the foreign representative offices of the international organizations in China and the legally resided foreigners can apply for establish a school for children of foreign nationals. This administrative licensing item was confirmed by the Decree of the State Council No.412 (State Council on Administrative Licensing of the Administrative Examination and Approval Program Setting that really need to be preserved). The number of school for children of foreign nationals increased rapidly so that by the end of 2008, there have been 98 schools. The schools cover 16 provinces and municipalities. The number of the school and the scale of the students are very impressive. What need to be noticed that, the list of the schools for children of foreign nationals that the Ministry of Education proclaimed does not include the schools for children of Taiwan compatriots. The latter is classified below.

3. School for Children of Taiwan Compatriots
All of the schools for children of Taiwan compatriots are intensively located at the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta where the Taiwan businessmen densely reside. Since there are great differences between Taiwan Strait on national consciousness, the schools for children of Taiwan compatriots have drawn too much attention.

The Implementing Regulations of Taiwan Compatriots Investment Protection Law of PRC, namely the Decree of the State Council No.274, also mentions that the Taiwan compatriots investors and Taiwan compatriots investment enterprises institutions can apply for opening school for children of Taiwan Compatriots at the places where the Taiwan compatriots intensively invested, according to relevant law in China.

4. School for Children of Hong Kong and Macao Compatriots
In 2008, the Ministry of Education entrusted Guangdong government to make the examination and approval of opening the schools for children of Hong Kong and Macao compatriots in order to make the procedure for examination and approval simplified. In 2009 February, Guangdong government entrusted the Shenzhen City to make the examination and approval of opening the schools for children of Hong Kong and Macao compatriots in Shenzhen, according to the opinions replied by the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Office of the Ministry of Education. Guangdong Provincial Department of Education organized to draft the Administrative Measures on Opening Schools for Children of Hong Kong and Macao Compatriots in Gugangdong province and applied for approval to the Ministry of Education. It came into effect after being approved.