<p>Community college student and Chinese National Yichun Xu was driving recklessly, collided with another car, and caused the ultimate death of a young woman in an accident near Seattle, WA.</p>
<p>What has angered some folks is the apparent ease at which Xu enrolled and then stopped attending school at a local community college, and said enrollment was one basis of the judge’s decision to grant bail. Xu’s family in China apparently had no problem posting the $2 million cash bail, but the victims’ fear that Xu’s wealth will allow him to flee and avoid prosecution and civil liability.</p>
<p>The community college is not directly involved in this matter, but should colleges require international admits to post some kind of bond as a requirement of admission, to attempt to address some of the issues created by this tragedy? A few years ago an upstate New York college athlete from eastern Europe critically injured a fellow in a bar fight, was charged with a crime and then promptly fled back to Europe and faced relatively minimal accountability once home.</p>
<p>If the guy if paying $2 million with ease, what do you suggest CCs do? Ask for a $3 million bond from international students? Can you come up with a number that would prevent people from fleeing the country in case of a murder charge and still allow people to enroll before the fact?</p>
<p>Ummm NO. Why would colleges cut their own throats by that sort of action? Look. Any foreign national in the US (whether for work, extended visit,or education) could pull this off. Your two instances, however tragic, should cause orgs/employers to have people make bond? How about Americans who are travelling/working/studying abroad? Should the do the same? Aren’t they as likely to escape back to the US to avoid civil or criminal prosecution?</p>
<p>T26E4, That was exactly the point I was trying to make. Any large enough amount that is sufficient to deter fleeing the country will make it impossible for people to enroll. Therefore, schools will not do that on own volition. Government regulation may impose this, but it would cause CCs to only enroll a much, much smaller fraction of international students.</p>
<p>Perhaps we just shouldnt be so quick to issue student visas.
With that kind of money, there must be behavioral reasons why he wasn’t attending school in his own country. Especially when he was living with a host family who was expected to keep an eye on him.</p>
<p>He didnt have a liscense. I wouldnt have given him bail.</p>
<p>I wonder how the reverse would be handled in China.</p>
<p>Relative to American students, incidents involving foreign students are so far and few between. (Main reason is that white American students are far, far more likely to drink and drive.)</p>
<p>The OP notes that the incident does not involve the community college. Why then would the community college levy a “bond” for situations they are not involved in?</p>
<p>Taking it further…would the OP suggest that universities levy a similar bond for students from out of state?</p>
<p>Of course American students are more likely to have drivers licenses and insurance that international students. In order to register their car, purchase insurance, buy a car, they would need a license. I would hope American parents would not hand over a car to unlicensed college kids. </p>
<p>In most of the U.S. 18 year olds have licenses, and experience driving. Outside of the few large metro areas that have great mass transit (NYC, Chicago), a car is a necessity.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why any reason that he wasn’t attending school in his own country (not doing well on the gaokao, having a behavioral problem, etc.) has anything to do with anything. If a rich kid in the US went to community college and had this kind of accident occur, would it matter that he was rich?</p>
<p>I don’t see either what the college has to do with it. If the bail set by the court was not high enough to keep him in the country, the court should have set a higher bail or else not offered him bail at all. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, colleges already have to verify the physical presence of international students on campus at regular intervals, and report absent students to the Department of State. I don’t think anything more should be expected of them. Colleges are not prisons.</p>
<p>Regarding this incident…most international students keep their noses clean and do what they need to do to enjoy their undergrad years and graduate. </p>
<p>However, it’s the sensationalist stories which get the press’ attention…especially when it’s as serious as this. </p>
<p>One college friend knew someone who was classmates with a Saudi royal who was involved in a similar hit & run incident in the states some years back. Only difference was because the royal had diplomatic immunity, there was nothing the local authorities could do but let him go and allow him to leave the country once his diplomatic status and identity were confirmed. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>EXACTLY. To give an idea of how competitive the gaokao is, in 2007, less than 50% of all gaokao examinees scored high enough to gain admission to ANY college in China. </p>
<p>In the Republic of China(Taiwan), it’s slightly better. Read in 2005 around 2/3s scored high enough on their gaokao to make it into ANY college. </p>
<p>In either case, it’s much worse if one’s gunning for the first or even second-tier institutions as ranked in their respective societies. </p>
<p>Competition’s so intense it’s not unheard of for someone to completely flub such exams and yet, demonstrate enough academic acumen to gain admission to some fine universities here in the US…including some Ivies. In fact, it’s such a well-known phenomenon among the Chinese student community on some campuses that grad students just 5-7 years ago would regard their undergrad compatriots on the same campus with some skepticism/disdain due to suspicions they were on the elite/Ivy campus as a wealth laden backdoor to academic prestige.</p>
<p>Most of the foreign students I have known here recently come from wealthy families, know how to drive, have international drivers licenses, and many of them have cars. </p>
<p>As in China, the competition to get into the best universities in India is INTENSE. The Ivy League odds would look very good to many of these students and their families.</p>
<p>Could the authorities confiscated his passport as part of his bond order? </p>
<p>If he flees, part of his bond should be available for the family of the victim. </p>
<p>there could be ways to write up bond, etc, for cases like this without needing colleges to be involved. However, to get an education visa, int’ls could be required to purchase some kind of liability insurance while they’re here. That shouldn’t cost too much.</p>
<p>[$2M</a> posted to bail out Chinese student facing vehicular-homicide charge | Local News | The Seattle Times](<a href=“http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020474352_chinesebailxml.html]$2M”>http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020474352_chinesebailxml.html) indicates that the accused had to surrender his passport, although the county prosecutor’s office said that there have been cases where Chinese nationals somehow got back to China after surrendering their passports. There is no extradition treaty between the US and China, according to the article.</p>
<p>What can you do? Unless you demand that bail be set at an amount which cannot possibly be afforded (in which case there’s no point in setting bail), someone can still post and jump. I don’t see how this could be prevented without doing something which is going to make everyone’s lives more difficult.</p>
<p>That article UCB posted makes no mention that he jumped bail? </p>
<p>If he didn’t jump, I guess I don’t see what the issue here is? Someone’s gonna have to dumb this down for me.</p>
<p>There is no extradition treaty between the US and China, according to the article.</p>
<p>Well, then, when issuing visas to int’ls who are coming from countries that we don’t have treaties with, then those students should be req’d to purchase some kind of liability insurance. </p>
<p>And, if they do commit serious crimes, either the bail should be very high (cash only, no %) or no bail should be set.</p>