Hi Michael,
Assuming you have a couple of years left to finish your academic studies then you could be in an excellent position to get an S/O entry with CX. There will be big redundancies in the next few weeks which will clear out a significant number of expat non
PR crew. When the schedule starts to ramp up again in say 2022 then there could be big opportunities. There is definitely no barrier for you coming from the mainland. By December the majority of pilots flying at CX will be Chinese.
good luck!