I am a resident of Asia and I have done my master's in mathematics last year(2021) from a university ranked 400 in mathematics in the world. and I am applying for PhD positions in Europe. I didn't applied to USA because instead of preparing for GRE and TOEFL , I wanted to spent that time self-studying more specialized courses in mathematics.
But, as I applied to UK, I came to know that unlike USA, UK has very less funding for international students. I had also planned to apply to Germany, France, Sweden, Australia but quite a number of professors whose interests align with mine are not taking PhD students for the next year.
Now, I thought that maybe I should write to professors in China as in QS ranking there are about 10-15 universities in top 100 universities in math. I am thinking of applying if I can get admission in top 50-100 universities and will only apply to universities in the range 50-100.
I don't have any knowledge of Chinese( spoken or written) but I am good in English. I don't want to do a PhD in India because research and teaching quality is not good in my country. I did my masters in India from a prestigious university of the country and was involved in a couple of internships in India at other prestigious institutes. It seemed that instead of even guiding and spending time teaching their courses with quality a lot of Prof. were interested in their own research and flattering with bosses, not even keeping with what they promised while agreeing to supervise for a project/ internship. Some of the profs were bullies.
My question: I know China is communist and authoritarian but that certainly doesn't matter to me because I am an introvert person who was never interested in politics and making new friends or co-curricular activities. I don't speak Chinese or can write in it but if selected I can learn it as much as I can, before joining the course.
What matter to me the most is that the research quality of Chinese Universities and is the environment good enough to for a foreign students to thrive? and what is the commitment of the Prof's to students? Although, a lot of Chinese universities excel in QS ranking but not so much information is available regarding above of my question on Internet. So, can you please let me know about it, if you are aware of it?
Before applying I thought to ask here as although I have searched on Internet a lot regarding it, but still I don't have enough information and I will spent my 4-5 very important years in PhD. So, I don't want to be at a place where I can't thrive in research as I already know how it feels due to some experiences in my country.
Certainly, one of my prof. suggested me to apply to Europe and he doesn't knows anything about china as looking at his CV I can see he never collaborated with anyone in China or gave any talk in china.
Thank you very much!