Silk Road becomes the one less travelled as talent is lured home

ABSTRACT

Tensions with the United States along with the COVID-19 pandemic look set to accelerate a drive towards research self-sufficiency and talent repatriation. Since 2014, China has enjoyed a net inflow of scientific talent, reversing the trend of the previous four decades, which saw more researchers leaving than arriving, an analysis of half a million scholars at the 100 leading institutions in the Nature Index reveals. "Many members of this diaspora are returning, often with advanced degrees and research experience," says van der Wende, who co-edited a book on China's higher-education globalization strategy (China and Europe on the New Silk Road Connecting Universities Across Eurasia Oxford Univ. The study also found that returning Chinese researchers publish in top journals (defined as Nature, Science, Cell and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) about half as often as those who remain overseas.