The trend of sending Chinese students abroad to study has often been viewed as a sign of China’s growing influence, but it has also brought a number of troubling developments that has sparked a bout of national soul searching.

Many in China were shocked to hear two Chinese exchange students living in Los Angeles were harassed, kidnapped and beaten last March, but were more surprised to hear that the perpetrators were fellow Chinese high schools students that were also studying abroad. Back in 2010, a Chinese student was sentenced to six months in prison for working as an “exam substitute” and defrauding the University of Warwick in the UK.

With more Chinese students going abroad, it’s expected there will be more bad apples too. The People’s Daily looked in-depth at the issue and found that Chinese exchange students are lacking the inner essence that defines a person’s morality and righteousness. Exchange students no longer represent the cream of the crop, which has created a need to educate them to appreciate basic laws and practices they did not learn in China.

But the questions remain: What is it that compels Chinese to commit illegal acts when abroad? Are they influenced by their new environment to act immorally? What does this mean for Chinese parents who want to send their kids abroad in the future?

Liu Xiqing, a three year student at the University of Pennsylvania, said the problems that plague many Chinese exchange students began before they ever stepped onto a foreign campus:

We have to admit that China has developed very rapidly these past few years with everyone having more wealth to their name. While the ‘hardware’ has developed quickly up to this point, the ‘software’ is still lagging behind. This includes the way parents teach their children the meaning of humanity, which is sorely lacking.

Gao Ran, a student at the University of St. Louis who first went to the US to study when he was 15, doesn’t view the trend of sending younger students abroad as a positive sign:

I think that everybody is going abroad at too young an age, just at that delicate time during maturity when they need the discipline and restrictions of a mother and father. People my age will sometimes engage in copycat behavior that is not healthy.

While the Chinese government is trying to put forth an image of a society based on the rule of law, Chinese lawyers say the reality of Chinese society shapes the way Chinese students perceive the rules and customs of foreign societies, leading some to perform illegal acts.

In regards to the Warwick incident, lawyer An Xiang said Chinese law isn’t the same as laws outside the country:

Improper behavior like using exam substitutes isn’t just illegal outside of China, but inside as well. However, the difference is that here in China we are much more lenient in punishing this behavior than outside.

Student Gao Ran said that the lack of awareness for the law is evident in his peers:

The standard of law in the mainland is not as high as it is abroad. After graduating from middle school and enrolling in high school, (I noticed) other children abroad had already become aware of laws in their country whereas we were still quite ignorant and not familiar with the way things are.

Then it comes down to the hard question: Do Chinese commit these crimes because they’re Chinese?

Chen Shiyu, who earned his masters from John Hopkins University, said there is a cultural reason to explain why Chinese will act poorly when abroad:

An important characteristic to point out about the illegal behavior of Chinese exchange students when abroad is their sense of community. Many exchange students go abroad when they are young, and experience deep feelings of loneliness, and want to be able to reunite (with family and friends). If the leader of the group they are in exhibits poor characteristics, then other exchange students will take after them. If a member of this group deviates from the norm, they will be rejected and isolated, whereas all exchange students want a sense of belonging when they leave China. This is such the case with the Los Angeles incident in which many people just watched as bystanders. Therefore, I think that the illegal activities of many people isn’t a voluntary act, but a sign that they don’t want to leave this group. Whatever the group does, one must follow.

There’s always going to be cultural misunderstandings and awkwardness between different cultures. But the way lawyer Luan Shaohu puts it, Chinese are culturally programmed for illegal behavior because of the way they were raised:

The reason why Chinese exchange students engage in illegal behavior abroad is because since they grew up in the mainland, they grew up thinking things like ‘no one is poorer for not abiding by the law’, ‘small transgressions can be smoothed out from guanxi/relationships’, ‘enforcement is not serious’, and ‘the law is not fair’. In this way, they come up with a model of thinking in which certain things are feasible, thereby influencing the way they view the enforcement of laws in countries abroad.

Luan also provides a solution to the problem:

Foreign consulates have not provided proper consulting services to Chinese exchange students and workers on basic laws, making them unaware of them. I have urged Chinese consulates to hire lawyers or to cooperate with overseas Chinese to create a booklet of basic laws for their benefit and convenience.

There could be more problems ahead, as a report by the Hurun Research Academy said 80 percent of China’s rich send their children to study overseas, some as young as 16.