As geopolitical competition and national security continue to dominate the China-U.S. relationship, Chinese nationals are finding it increasingly difficult to live in the U.S. This month, Tsinghua University highlighted top chip expert Sun Nan, who returned to China with the hope of “training chip professionals for China” after spending ten years in the U.S. Last month, Shenzhen-based data technology firm Dongbi Data published a report, based on data from 2020 to 2024, showing that China has overtaken the U.S. for the first time in the number of its high-level science and technology experts, with an increase in the number of top scientists in China and a decrease in those in the U.S. On Friday, Holly Chik reported for the South China Morning Post on a recent study showing that top U.S. universities are the main source of “brain drain” for scientists returning to China:
Without providing their exact figures, [the authors of the study] said Cambridge [Massachusetts] was the largest source of returnees, and also the “primary source of returning talent to Beijing and Shanghai”.
[…] For the study, researchers from the faculty of geography of Tianjin Normal University and the National Academy of Innovation Strategy, a Beijing-based think tank, looked into the education and career profiles of scientists who had studied or worked outside mainland China and then returned to benefit from the National Outstanding Young Scientist Fund.
The study, published in the Chinese-language journal Tropical Geography on Monday, found that around 1,250 scientists fitted this profile and accounted for around half the total beneficiaries from the fund, which is open to male researchers under the age of 45 and women under 48.
[…] It said another factor [motivating returnees] was the “baseless accusations and suspicions” Chinese people faced in the US – a reference to projects such as the China Initiative, which was launched in 2018 and targeted scientists suspected of having links to Beijing and stealing technology. [Source]
The increase in China’s research talent pool has helped to underpin some recent technological achievements. Chinese AI company DeepSeek, whose AI chatbot attained global success last month, is powered by a team of mostly “home-grown talent” from elite Chinese universities who “are deeply motivated by a drive for self-reliance in innovation,” said Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney. With Chinese universities producing nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers, and an increase in national-security related visa restrictions on Chinese AI researchers living or working in the U.S., “[if this talent pool is] not going to go abroad, they’re going to to start some company” or work for a Chinese one, MacroPolo’s Damien Ma said last week. Viola Zhou at Rest of World provided more details this month on “why China’s top AI talent is skipping Silicon Valley,” including the personal story of Zizheng Pan, a young artificial-intelligence researcher who, at the end of his Nvidia internship in 2023, opted to return to China and join DeepSeek:
Pan’s choice reflects a growing trend among China’s AI elite to reject Silicon Valley jobs for the AI industry in China, which offers lower living costs, proximity to family, and the opportunity to take on significant roles early in their careers, people in China’s tech industry told Rest of World. DeepSeek filled its ranks with young graduates and interns from elite Chinese universities, such as Tsinghua University and Peking University.
[…] Nearly half the world’s top AI researchers completed their undergraduate studies in China, according to a 2023 report on global AI talent published by Chicago-based think tank MacroPolo. Chinese universities, state-backed labs, and research arms of American tech giants, such as the Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia, have helped groom a large group of local researchers.
[…] But when given full-time offers, many [Chinese interns] have chosen to go back to China, said [an anonymous Chinese AI researcher at a leading U.S. tech company]. “What has surprised me is many Chinese students are not that interested in full-time jobs in America,” the researcher said. Worries over anti-immigration policies have also deterred some Chinese engineers from moving to the U.S. in recent years.
Although earlier generations of elite Chinese tech workers preferred Silicon Valley jobs for higher salaries and a chance to work alongside the world’s top innovators, a growing share of young AI engineers are choosing to stay home. There are also more opportunities for them as China’s domestic AI industry expands, with tech giants like Alibaba, and also startups such as StepFun, Minimax, and 01.AI. [Source]
Rising American concerns about foreign espionage have added to an atmosphere of anxiety for U.S.-based Chinese researchers, leading some to worry about a “new McCarthyism.” In January, Feng Tao, a Chinese-born chemistry professor who was wrongfully accused of spying for China, sued his former employer, the University of Kansas, for discrimination. Court documents allege that the university leadership collaborated with the FBI to target Tao and search his lab and home, based on text messages between both parties. The failed prosecution was driven by the “China Initiative,” a now-defunct Department of Justice project that Michael German, a senior fellow in the Brennan Center and a former FBI special agent, recently described as “an unmitigated failure that caused lasting harm to U.S. national interests.” In a recent ChinaFile article, Freedom House’s Yaqiu Wang discussed the imperative of finding a balance between scientific openness and security, if the U.S. is to continue to attract top-flight scientific talent from China and elsewhere. The article concludes with a brief cautionary tale about “shatter[ing] a Chinese person’s ‘American dream’ before she even came to the U.S.”: a Chinese student who won a full scholarship to a Ph.D. program in chemistry in the U.S. recounted her disappointment after being denied a visa because her Chinese university appeared on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List.
