From my experience there are two tiers of international student. There are the ones who emigrate in late middle school/early high school to get permanent reside

From my experience there are two tiers of international student. There are the ones who emigrate in late middle school/early high school to get permanent residency before entering university (and thus paying domestic tuition) and those who come over right at the beginning of university. The latter category pay exorbitant tuition and, from what I’ve seen, drive fancy cars and wear luxury designer brands. These kids have more money than they know what to do with. Their parents are likely to be at least somewhat involved in the CCP and so it makes sense that they’d be unimpressed with their western peers.