China Resources Group and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp have jointly launched the HK$100 million ($13 million) Beyond Dreams — Global Talent Ignite program, which encourages Hong Kong students and research professionals who are currently based overseas, to return to the special administrative region to give their careers a boost. Once approved, the returnees receive a monthly stipend of up to HK$10,000 or accommodation subsidies for a period of six months to one year, easing their integration into Hong Kong’s innovation and technology sector, where they can apply their international knowledge and expertise to reinforce the city’s position as a leading global hub for the industry.

Of course, money alone is not enough to boost science and academia — it also takes brains. Big ones, too. Luckily for Hong Kong, a number of those already boarded their return flights to the city. For instance, Ma Yi, a former Microsoft Research Asia researcher, gave up his tenure at the University of California, Berkeley, to become head of the University of Hong Kong’s computing school. According to him, Hong Kong is the perfect spot to train artificial intelligence professionals as it is a place where “academic independence” is respected and talented people have every incentive to join the booming local high-tech industry as they graduate. “We have the top talent, raw talent, but they need the right environment, the system, to grow,” Ma points out.

Perhaps somewhat counter intuitively, “the right environment to grow” the Chinese intelligentsia that Ma invoked doesn’t seem to be solely taken care of by China — as it is also nurtured in America. Specifically, during the last decade, the United States accounted for the largest number of Chinese researchers who moved back to the Chinese mainland. There were two main drivers of this mass exodus: China’s rapid development and the China Initiative, a US project launched in 2018 to target Chinese scientists. Seven years in, hundreds of researchers with Chinese heritage have been investigated by the FBI, resulting in just eight convictions for offenses such as academic fraud and trade theft.

Furthermore, the trend of this reverse brain drain is getting stronger by the day. According to a study by Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, less than half of Chinese researchers who left the US in 2010 chose to return to China. However, by 2021, out of a total 20,000 Chinese scientists who permanently abandoned their “American dream”, the proportion heading home has risen to over two-thirds. Among them are: Guan Kunliang , one of the most cited researchers in the field of biochemistry and a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award; Wang Zhonglin, known as “the father of nanogenerators”; Gao Huajian, who sits on both the US’ National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Liu Chang, a nuclear physicist who left Princeton to pursue research into nuclear fusion; and Qi Guojun, one of the world’s leading AI minds.

Charles Lieber, the former Harvard professor who was named the leading chemist in the world for the decade 2000-2010, also began looking to move to China, including the HKSAR after he was convicted in December 2021 for his collaboration with a Chinese university.

Unsettling as it appears, this might only be the beginning. As a 2021-2022 survey revealed, of nearly 1,400 Chinese Americans in tenured or tenure-track positions at US universities, 35 percent feel unwelcome, and 72 percent do not feel safe. Furthermore, 42 percent are fearful of conducting research in the US, 65 percent are worried about pursuing collaborations with China and 86 percent perceive that it is harder to recruit top international students now compared with five years ago. Of the survey respondents who have obtained US federal grants, 45 percent say that they now will avoid applying for such awards for fear of making mistakes in the application process that could lead to them being investigated.

China’s rapid development and the China Initiative, a US project launched in 2018 to target Chinese scientists. Seven years in, hundreds of researchers with Chinese heritage have been investigated by the FBI, resulting in just eight convictions for offenses such as academic fraud and trade theft

After the enthronement of the Trump administration, their phobias just got supercharged. In March, House Republicans proposed legislation to ban Chinese nationals from getting student visas in the US. “Every year, we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the US on student visas. We’ve literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security,” one of the initiators stated. Soon after, the chair of a US House committee asked six American universities about their policies on Chinese nationals and ordered detailed information about their entire Chinese student populations. “America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing,” said the head of the committee.   

At the same time, some strange occurrences have taken place.

In March, a Chinese professor, Kevin Wang, was fired from the New College of Florida under a new state law “that limits public universities from employing people from so-called ‘countries of concern’, including China, Cuba, Iran, Russia and Venezuela”.

Yau Shing-tung, a former top professor of mathematics at Harvard, says that “Chinese scientists have no choice but to leave the US” because the environment has become too discriminatory against them. However, “for China, the return of these scientists means it is gaining top talent”. And the most amusing part is that all this is accelerating under US President Donald Trump, who detailed his so-called expertise in his book The Art of the Deal. Pure talent, isn’t it?

The author is a journalist, geopolitical analyst and economic commentator.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.