China's policy to attract overseas scientific and technological talent, which has been pursued for decades, has shown to have a tangible impact on strengthening its domestic research capabilities. However, as time goes on, the sustainability of its international influence and the gap with domestic researchers have also come to the forefront.
International journal Nature published an analysis on the 29th (local time) of the impact of China's talent attraction program on its scientific community.
Over the past 30 years, China has brought back thousands of its scientists who studied or worked overseas through various programs. A representative case is the state-led talent attraction program 'One Thousand Talents Plan' (千人計劃) which has been operating since 2008, targeting those under 40 and attracting young overseas researchers. In addition to national-level programs, there are also hundreds of similar projects at the regional or local government level.
Nature estimates that about 16,000 scientists and technical personnel returned to China through its talent attraction program by 2018. The results have been remarkable. Researchers who returned through the youth talent program from 2012 to 2014 published more papers than their peers who remained overseas.
Lili Yang, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, noted in Nature that "scientists who returned to China contribute to enhancing the quality and influence of research in China, playing key roles in major universities and government agencies."
As of 2023, over 70% of the heads of key national projects and presidents of national universities were returnees. Yanbo Wang, a professor at the University of Hong Kong's School of Business, explained that "many department heads in universities are also returnees and they serve as a bridge for international exchanges."
However, Nature reported that there are voices of opposition to China's talent attraction program. It is said that the concentration of benefits such as high research funds, housing support, and research autonomy for returnees has created a sense of relative deprivation for researchers who continued their studies in China.
Additionally, while international collaborative research and citation metrics were high in the early days of researchers' returns, there is a trend of declining international influence over time. Initially, returnees enjoyed high autonomy and significant support, but it has been analyzed that as competition has intensified recently, these benefits have gradually decreased.
Shaodong Zhang, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Shanghai Jiaotong University, stated, "Thanks to the talent program, I received substantial startup funding to set up my laboratory," adding that "the selected individuals enjoyed many benefits and a considerable degree of autonomy, but recent returnees are facing greater competition and career pressures."
References
Nature (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02336-w