US-China trade
Where China stands in the global race for talent
Published 23 April 2024
As geopolitical competition intensifies, China has risen to become the world's second-largest STEM talent pool, swiftly closing the gap with the US. However, despite continued efforts, China faces persistent challenges in attracting and retaining top foreign talent, mainly drawing ethnic Chinese or Chinese nationals studying abroad.
China is making strides in attracting foreign talent, yet it still faces significant challenges in competing with established global talent hubs, particularly the US. Despite concentrated efforts to draw high-quality talent, China struggles in attracting individuals without prior connections to the country.
Our detailed sectoral analysis based on data from Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), UNESCO Global Flow of Tertiary-Level Students, and the Macro Polo Global AI Talent Tracker reveals that China's ability to attract talent declines as the quality of scientific expertise and tertiary education advancement increases.
As China faces demographic aging, the imperative to explore new avenues for tapping foreign talent without pre-existing ties becomes ever more pressing. With Western nations tightening tech denial policies against China, other Asian economies and less developed countries are emerging as potential sources of talent imports. China's emphasis on attractive graduate and employment programs may further incentivize talent migration.
Nevertheless, China's efforts to attract STEM talent should not lead Western competitors to complacency. Beijing is intensifying efforts to attract talent, particularly from neighboring regions and less developed countries. Moreover, there is a trend of top researchers of Chinese descent in the West relocating to China if they perceive policies worsening in their current host countries.
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Geopolitical competition over technology continues to raise security concerns within the knowledge realm. Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau and Antonia Hmaidi highlight that China's heavy emphasis on loyalty to state-party interests erects barriers for more of its researchers abroad to return or stay, and for non-Chinese researchers engaging in its technology ecosystem.
China’s participation in the global market for talent is complicated by its pursuit of an integrated and self-reliant domestic market that only secondarily trades with the outside world, a Xi-driven economic ideology that the Chinese party-state calls the “dual circulation” strategy. For China, the drive for talent sometimes called “brain circulation” may ultimately be undone by Beijing’s simultaneous policy desire for dual circulation.
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Author
Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau
Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau is Head of Program of "Science, Technology and Innovation" at MERICS.
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Author
Antonia Hmaidi
Antonia Hmaidi works on the geopolitics of technology, China’s pursuit of tech self-reliance (especially in areas like semiconductors, operating systems and internet infrastructure), China's cybersecurity and hacking campaigns.
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The largest European research institute focusing solely on the analysis of contemporary China and its relations with Europe and the wider world.
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