How a bold set of talents in China formed science

Many Chinese researchers received enviable benefits and positions after returning from studying abroad.

Materials chemist Nan Liu has chosen a short path to a career that many researchers can only dream of. She moved from a PhD in the United States to a professor at a Chinese university with a research budget of 4 million yuan ($560,000). Liu, who is currently at Beijing Normal University, was hired as part of the "Thousand Young Talents" Plan, a government initiative to return talented foreign researchers to China.

Over the past three decades, thousands of Chinese researchers who studied or worked abroad have returned to the country through similar talent selection programs. These recruits, who often receive significant funding and benefits, have had a significant positive impact on China's research landscape and contributed to its global competitiveness, scientists say.

Studies have shown that returnees have helped improve the quality, quantity and impact of research in China, says Lily Yang, who studies higher education at the University of Hong Kong. Many hold key positions at universities or government agencies.

But the funding and other benefits provided to those recruited by talent programs have caused some outrage among young Chinese researchers who remain in the country, says Jiang Li, who studies science at Nanjing University in China. "They complain a lot."

As China's global scientific status grows and geopolitical tensions with the United States increase, recruitment programs are increasingly eyeing researchers who studied in China.

Financing and autonomy

Since the late 1990s, China has conducted several talent recruitment programs at the national level to attract foreign researchers in addition to hundreds of regional and local schemes. One of the largest and most famous was the "Thousand Talents" Plan, focused on leading researchers and entrepreneurs, which included a "youth" branch for people under 40 years old.

It is estimated that by 2018, 16,000 scientists and high-tech entrepreneurs were hired under various programs to return to China.

Researchers apply for these programs after receiving a job offer at the Chinese Research Institute. They usually receive a registration bonus of at least half a million yuan and can access several million yuan in the form of research funding from the government and the host institute. They also receive housing subsidies and preferential treatment when applying for grants.

Around the mid-2010s, the participants of the "Thousand Talents" Plan became the target of U.S. government agencies, which considered it as a channel for the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets, although confirmed cases were rare. Since then, the Chinese government has renamed the program to the High-End Foreign Talents Plan.

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The researchers tried to study the influence of Chinese talent programs. The 2023 analysis showed that returnees who joined the youth talent program between 2012 and 2014 published more articles than their colleagues who remained abroad.

But the picture is more nuanced, researchers say. More extensive studies of the scientific results of returnees, who can act as a proxy for the influence of those who returned through talent programs, showed that they had a better chance of becoming correspondents than those who stayed abroad, but were less likely to be published in top-level journals. This and other talent recruiter studies suggest that returnees may not represent the highest level of international talent and are probably in the early stages of their careers, says Lee, who was a co-author of the study.

A 2020 study showed that returnees wrote articles that were more cited than those prepared by their local colleagues and maintained strong publishing ties with their international colleagues. They "helped to increase China's credibility," says co-author Caroline Wagner, a science and policy specialist at Ohio State University at Columbus.

But a later analysis of about 300 Chinese returnees showed that their average number of citations per publication decreased within five years of their return. Their number of international employees and international citations have also decreased over time, which indicates the limits of what the talent selection policy can achieve, the authors suggest.

Scientific leaders

Many returnees hold prominent positions at universities, and some have even consulted with the Chinese government on science policy, says Yang.

State statistics show that in 2023, more than 70% of national project managers and presidents of national universities were returning. "Many deans or heads of departments are returning," says Yanbo Wang, a researcher in science and politics at the University of Hong Kong. The returnees also create opportunities to exchange ideas with their local colleagues and act as bridges connecting them to international researchers, says Wang.

Although the first batch of recruits may have enjoyed considerable autonomy, university positions were filled by long-term researchers, and opportunities became more competitive, scientists say. "Thanks to the talent program, I received a huge starter pack to really initiate my own research group," says Shaodong Zhang, a chemist who took over as an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2017, leaving behind the postdoctoral position at Imperial College London.

Van says that the "first loaders" received many advantages and enjoyed great autonomy. New recruits face more competition and career pressure, he says. "The recent returnees are still waiting in line."