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China Scholarships Index

Unofficial index. Applications are made only through the official channels linked on each page.

Monthly stipend compared: CSC, MOFCOM, ACYLS, China Link, Silk Road and the Chinese language teachers scholarship

Sources checked · Unofficial summary

Six official notices state a living stipend for at least one group of students. Four of them state the amount per month, and two state it per year, so the figures cannot be compared directly without first checking each notice's unit. The table below keeps each notice's own unit.

The figures in one table

Scholarship Who the figure is for Amount (CNY) Period used in the notice
Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) Undergraduates 2,500 per month
Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) Master's students and general scholars 3,000 per month
Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) Doctoral students and senior scholars 3,500 per month
MOFCOM Scholarship (CSC Program) Master's students 36,000 per year
MOFCOM Scholarship (CSC Program) Doctoral students 42,000 per year
ASEAN-China Young Leaders Scholarship (ACYLS) Master's students 4,000 per month
ASEAN-China Young Leaders Scholarship (ACYLS) Doctoral students 5,000 per month
ASEAN-China Young Leaders Scholarship (ACYLS) Research scholars 5,000 per month
China Link Short-term Scientific Exchange Scholarship General scholars 3,000 monthly stipend
China Link Short-term Scientific Exchange Scholarship Senior scholars 3,500 monthly stipend
Chinese Trade Unions Silk Road Scholarship Trade union officials studying Chinese for one academic year 36,000 per person per academic year
International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship (2025 guidelines) Undergraduates, one-year and one-semester students 2,500 per month
International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship (2025 guidelines) Master's students in International Chinese Language Education 3,000 per month
International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship (2025 guidelines) Doctoral students in International Chinese Language Education 3,500 per month

Two notices use a yearly figure. The MOFCOM notice gives its stipend as RMB 36,000 per year for a master's student and RMB 42,000 per year for a PhD student. The Silk Road notice gives CNY 36,000 per person per academic year. The Silk Road page also says the stipend is paid monthly, but it does not state a monthly amount, so this article does not divide the yearly figure to produce one.

What differs between the notices

The CSC Application Guide sets three amounts by study level. Undergraduates receive CNY 2,500 per month, master's students and general scholars receive CNY 3,000, and doctoral students and senior scholars receive CNY 3,500.

The International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship uses the same three amounts for its own groups. Its guidelines apply them to undergraduates and to one-year and one-semester students (CNY 2,500), to master's students in International Chinese Language Education (CNY 3,000), and to doctoral students in the same field (CNY 3,500). Students on the four-week study programme are excluded from the living allowance under these guidelines.

ACYLS pays a higher monthly figure for master's students (CNY 4,000) than the CSC guide does. Doctoral students and research scholars both receive CNY 5,000 per month.

Some programmes use one flat amount. The Silk Road scholarship gives one figure, CNY 36,000 per person per academic year, for a single one-year Chinese language programme at Beijing Language and Culture University. China Link does not divide its stipend by study level. It divides it by scholar type only: general scholars are the current undergraduates or graduates, and senior scholars are current PhD candidates or faculty. The two rates are CNY 3,000 and CNY 3,500.

Payment rules that appear in several notices

ACYLS and the Silk Road notice use the same rule for the first and last month. A student who registers on or before the 15th receives the full stipend for that month. A student who registers after the 15th receives half. Graduating students receive half a month more after the graduation date. The ICLT guidelines use the same registration rule.

Both ACYLS and the Silk Road notice say the stipend stops if a registered student stays outside China for more than 15 days for personal reasons, with school holidays excluded. The ICLT guidelines say the allowance is suspended during such an absence too.

Where the notices are silent

The CSC Application Guide does not say when its stipend is paid or whether the figures apply to a particular academic year. The page has no publication date and no academic year.

The MOFCOM notice does not give a monthly breakdown or a payment schedule. It also gives no deadline. It tells applicants to ask the application receiving authority for each year's deadline.

The China Link notice describes its stipend as monthly, and it gives no date for when the stipend starts or ends beyond the rule that study must begin no later than August 31, 2027. Its appendixes, which list the foreign universities, the host Chinese universities and the online application guide, were not read for this article.

The ICLT guidelines are the 2025 edition, dated January 2025. They were written for programmes starting between July 2025 and March 2026. Those dates have passed. The figures in the table describe that cycle, and a later edition may use different amounts.

Sources

Checked October 10, 2026.

This page is an unofficial summary. It is not published by the China Scholarship Council, Campus China, the Ministry of Commerce, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, or the Center for Language Education and Cooperation. If this summary and an official notice differ, the official notice prevails.

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