I would say that many Chinese students (with their families support) still aim to study abroad before returning home. Getting up to speed in English is a requirement for that.

It's become a lot less popular because China has been passing policies to encourage companies to give preference to students from Chinese universities. At this point the main reason for Chinese students going abroad is because they come from well off families and couldn't hack it in the competitive system in China, so they go get a degree in a western university where they can actually get in.

my university was over 75% funded by west and east asians students like this and it was mind boggling to me at the time that a university with such a poor reputation in the western world would carry any sort of reputational weight in asia.

yeah a lot of universities live off international students