Reversing the brain drain
1,000 Talents and similar efforts have worked, researchers say, but would work better if China addresses its bureaucratic academic system, political environment, inflexibility in immigration practices, and other concerns, including pollution
BEIJING—As a young biologist at the University of Michigan, Chen Xiaowei had plenty to like about life in the US. He was paid well as a researcher and enjoyed raising his family in Ann Arbor, a town he remembers as beautiful, friendly and highly educated.
But an offer from a Chinese university for him to return home to Beijing was too generous not to consider. In addition to a comparable salary, he was promised enough startup research money that he wouldn’t have to worry about pursuing grants, and as he saw it, there was a chance to make a bigger difference in China. So in 2014 he moved back with his wife and two children.
“I feel freer to pursue my best ideas,” Chen said. He said he has received such generous support that he’s able to study a disease through symptoms in both the liver and muscles simultaneously — something he said he would not able to do in the United States because of limitations on grants, which are often tied to projects instead of researchers.
Chen, who earned a doctorate in physiology at Michigan in 2008, has joined thousands of high-achieving overseas Chinese recruited to come home through the 1,000 Talents program, one of many state efforts launched in recent years to reverse a decades-long brain drain.
Innovation
China, the world’s second-largest economy and one of the fastest-growing, sees a need to bring home more of its brightest as it works to transform its largely labor-intensive, low-tech economy into one fueled by innovation in science and technology.
Forbidden to study abroad until the 1980s, Chinese students have been attending foreign schools in growing numbers. More than 300,000 studied in the US alone in the 2014-2015 school year.
Most of those students return to China, but the country has had difficulty regaining the most coveted graduates — those with advanced degrees and experience in science and engineering.
A 2014 report by Oak Ridge Institute shows 85 percent of the 4,121 Chinese students who received doctorates in science and engineering from American universities in 2006 were still in the US five years later. Still, that marked an improvement: The stay rate had been 98 percent a decade earlier.
The 1,000 Talents program offers recruits salaries several times more than what a Chinese-educated local hire would receive, as well as heavily subsidized education for children and millions in start-up research funds. The sign-up bonus alone can be as much as $150,000.
Chen, now an assistant professor at Peking University, was given a $1.5 million research fund. “In the States,” he said, “it’s very hard for young people to get money when they need it the most.”
Beijing says the leading 1,000 Talents program since 2008 has brought back 6,000 people who have become vital forces in areas such as science and technology, education and high-tech industry. Similar programs have mushroomed at provincial and municipal levels.
Researchers say 1,000 Talents and similar efforts have worked but with limited success. China is handicapped by a bureaucratic academic system, less-than-friendly political environment, inflexibility in immigration practices and other concerns including pollution.
In China, leaders are deliberating about reforming higher education and easing immigration policies, but for now, the money-dropping 1,000 Talents program serves as a quick solution.
Polishing minds
Still, it has had problems of its own. Some scholars kept overseas positions while taking full-time paychecks from Chinese schools, or had forged credentials, leading to measures to disqualify those who have been dishonest academically.
In the US, private corporate security officials have raised concerns that recruits are being enticed and compensated for access to sensitive material at American firms and universities. They point to cases like a 2015 federal indictment in which several Chinese researchers — recruited by a Chinese university — were accused of stealing trade secrets from a California company and economic espionage.
But Chen, the Michigan-educated biologist, said he and his wife still consider themselves “true Wolverines,” and that he’s putting that American experience to good use.
“There are opportunities to grow with a developing system. There are lots of raw talents in China, and lots of students are willing to work with you,” Chen said. “There’s a great need to polish minds, and I see opportunities to contribute.” (AP)
There are opportunities to grow with a developing system. There are lots of raw talents in China, and lots of students are willing to work with you. There’s a great need to polish minds, and I see opportunities to contribute.