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: 大学国际化之一：中国大学与“国际化”的距离
German translation: Internationalisierung: ein weiter Weg