Chinese students’ suicides in Australia highlight mental health crisis amid ‘extreme isolation’

Experts say cultural isolation and insufficient support is fuelling a mental health crisis among international students in Australia

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Suicides or attempted suicides among international students in Australia have become a worrying trend, experts say. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:00pm, 24 Aug 2024

The apparent murder-suicide of two Chinese students in Sydney has highlighted a growing mental health crisis among Australia’s international student community, with experts warning that cultural isolation and insufficient mental health support are fuelling a troubling trend.

Police revealed on Wednesday that university student Xiaoting Wang was stabbed in a flat, while another Chinese student, who has yet to be identified but is understood to have been living with Wang, was found dead at the bottom of the block of flats in Burwood, a suburb popular with the Chinese diaspora.

Police asked the public for more information while the local press indicated it was being investigated as a murder-suicide.

Suicides or attempted suicides among international students – including those from China, the largest group of foreign students in Australia – have become a worrying trend, experts say.

Xiaoting Wang, a Chinese student who died in Sydney last week. Photo: New South Wales Police

These tragedies prompted the Victorian state coroner to conduct three investigations between 2019 and 2023.

It is the only coroner in Australia with public records on such incidents. The coroner of New South Wales, home to the next biggest international student hub, does not publish such details and there are no other national figures publicly available.