With their roots in the planned economy era, Chinese universities, like corporations before the economic reform, remain "an appendage of the government." Therefore, compared  to universities in other countries, the current Chinese universities are "look the same from the outside but are very different on the inside." These changes to Chinese universities cannot happen on their own.

Li Dun (李楯), Professor at the Center for Contemporary China at Tsinghua University in Beijing

Chinese original: 大學國際化之一：中國大學與“國際化”的距離
German translation: Internationalisierung: ein weiter Weg