Voice of America: Who loses and who wins in the battle for talent between China and the United States

Voice of America: Who loses and who wins in the battle for talent between China and the United States People's Daily Online, a subsidiary of the People's Daily, once reprinted an article titled "U.S. media: China and the United States have lost the war for talent, and nearly half of the talents in the United States...

The most famous of these large and small talent plans is the "Thousand Talents Plan" implemented at the end of 2008. The purpose is to focus on China's strategic development goals and use 5-10 years to introduce a group of high-level overseas talents to return to China to innovate and start businesses in key innovation projects, key disciplines and key laboratories, enterprises and financial institutions.

In order to make this plan more attractive, the Chinese government promises to provide each imported talent with a one-time subsidy of 1 million yuan; the imported talents will enjoy medical care personnel treatment; enjoy subsidies including housing, family visits, children's education, etc.; and the employer will arrange jobs or provide living allowances for the spouses of the imported talents, etc. According to reports, the Thousand Talents Plan has attracted more than 2,200 talents in high-tech fields to return to China in three years, 55% of whom are from the United States.

Yang Tianming, who is currently a neurology researcher at the National Institute of Health, said that his decision to return overseas was indeed attracted by these talent introduction programs, but these programs were not the deciding factor in his decision to return overseas. He said: "Because of this influence, I applied for the Thousand Talents Program myself, but the result has not been received yet. However, the most important reason for me to return to China is that domestic (scientific research) funding is relatively secure. Even if the application is not approved, I can still get sufficient support in other aspects of funding."

> Yang Tianming is a top talent in the field of neurology. After graduating from Fudan University in Shanghai, he went to the United States. After receiving his PhD in neurology from Baylor College of Medicine in 2003, he studied for a postdoctoral degree at the University of Washington at Seattle. In 2008, he began to work as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health. He said that due to the economic impact, the shrinking investment in scientific research in the United States was the main reason for his decision to return to China for development. "Because the economy in the United States is not good right now, the current scientific research funding in the United States is not particularly good. On the contrary, China has recently invested a lot in scientific research. When I returned to China for a visit this year, someone mentioned such an opportunity to me and the scientific research funding was sufficient, so I decided to return to China. Because doing science requires financial support to produce results."

Indeed, China's investment level in research and development has been steadily increasing in the past ten years. In 2010, China's investment in R&D accounted for 1.5% of GPD. Although this proportion is much higher than that of most developing countries, it is still inferior to the 2.7% of the United States.

However, the reasons why Chinese in the United States choose to return home vary. Xu Min, who came to the United States in 2004, is now a software engineer at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which operates the international financial messaging network. She said that the biggest attraction for her as a returnee is that she can reunite with her family and friends back home. She said: "If there is a good opportunity, I will definitely consider returning to China. After all, my family is there. Because I can be with my family back home, which is an important factor for me to consider."

The China and Globalization Research Center and Peking University Guanghua School of Management jointly released the "China Returnee Entrepreneurship Development Report (2012)" blue book in late July. This is China's first report focusing on the study of returnee groups returning to China to start businesses. The report said that since the launch of the Thousand Talents Plan, China has gradually transformed from a "brain-draining country" to a "brain-returning country." The report also said that the main factors for choosing overseas returnees are personal career development, social culture and reunion with family and friends. It can be seen that although various policies introduced by the Chinese government can play a certain role in promoting returnees, they are obviously not the most important factor in promoting returnees.

China's increased efforts to introduce overseas talents have indeed attracted the attention of all walks of life in the United States. A survey report released in May by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a group led by New York Mayor Bloomberg, blamed the United States' rigid immigration policy for the brain drain. The report said the U.S. immigration system is slow, rigid and fails to align with U.S. labor market needs. The report found that foreign students who graduated from American universities were forced to leave the United States due to visa restrictions. In recent years alone, thousands of foreign students have been forced to leave the United States. It is precisely foreign students who tend to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields that are not popular among American students.

The just-announced "China Returnee Entrepreneurship Development Report (2012)" also pointed out that among China's returnee talents, those who are foreign citizens or hold permanent residency account for 44% of all returnees. This shows that these high-end returnee talents are not necessarily real "turtles", but so-called "seagulls" traveling between China and overseas.

Perhaps, the phenomenon of many high-end talents deciding to become "seagulls" instead of "turtles" indicates to some extent that overseas talents still have some doubts about the sustainability of China's policy of welcoming overseas talents and the long-term development of Chinese society. Li Cheng, director of the John Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, said that the real attraction of a country to talents lies in its system. It is far from enough to rely on one or two good policies to attract talents.

Li Cheng said: "The attractiveness of policies to talents is actually very weak. From China's perspective, China's policies are very good, but from the perspective of the overall environment and system, there are many problems. This is a basic assessment. In the past two or three decades, China has achieved great development, and the return of talents is indeed a trend. But in recent years, there have been many obstacles to returning to China, including institutional and political problems. Including China's academic corruption, fake academic qualifications, exclusion of returnees, etc. Moreover, China's own market is also experiencing many problems. Although many "turtles" have gone back, it (China) is still difficult to find the most cutting-edge talents it needs. Many talents have gone back, but they are very difficult to find. Talents in high demand cannot be well developed. "

In fact, just as Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, called on overseas talents to return to serve the motherland, China's dignitaries, second-generation officials and second-generation rich people are flocking overseas. A Washington Post article mentioned an unofficial statistic circulating on the Internet. According to this statistics, 74.5% of the children of current and retired ministerial officials in China hold U.S. green cards or are U.S. citizens, and this proportion is as high as 91% among their grandchildren.

A survey last year by the Hurun Research Institute, which publishes the Hurun China Wealth Rankings, showed that half of China's millionaires said they planned to immigrate overseas, and North America was their preferred destination. Chinese students also continue to enter American university campuses. In the 2010-2011 academic year, a total of 158,000 Chinese students studied in the United States, an increase of 23.5% over the previous academic year and the highest level in history.

The American Time magazine website recently published an article by Chinese writer Eric Liu. Liu Baichuan compared the attraction of talents between China and the United States. He said that although China is catching up, its engineers are more engaged in daily work rather than inventing. China's control of the Internet has stifled innovation. Administrative opacity and the lack of public trust have dampened citizens' enterprising spirit. In contrast, the inherent advantages of the United States are reflected in its numerous research-oriented universities, an economic system that encourages venture capital, its acceptance of immigrants of all races, a relatively transparent government, and a nationwide network of voluntary organizations.

For China, in order to truly become a magnet for attracting talents, it is necessary to make adjustments and changes to these inherent systemic problems. However, carrying out these institutional reforms is far more difficult than issuing one or two policies and provisions. The war for talent between the United States and China has just begun, and the outcome is far from clear.