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China economy
Opinion
Winston Mok
Winston Mok

The View | How Hong Kong can be a model for China’s global talent search

  • China’s economic fortunes are tied to its talent pool, and it has a lot of catching up to do to match the drawing power of the US
  • One way to close that gap is to recreate Hong Kong on the mainland and use its strengths to attract talent from around the world

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The Qianhai Pilot Free Trade Zone in Shenzhen on October 12, 2020. China could accelerate its efforts to attract and retain global talent by creating a Hong Kong-like zone on the mainland. Photo: Getty Images
Winston Mok
China’s local governments have switched from focusing on attracting investments to courting talent, showing how intellectual capital is becoming a key engine for China’s next stage of development. In its push to achieve technological self-sufficiency, China has made bringing in international talent a national priority.
China’s economic fortunes are tied to its talent pool. Following the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the promises of rebuilding the nation drew back many educated patriots, a group that was later devastated during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

The preservation of human capital in China’s diaspora made the success of its economic reforms possible. With economic opening up, overseas Chinese and compatriots from Hong Kong and Taiwan brought their know-how and connections – which were no less important than capital – into the mainland, helping create a reliable, educated labour pool for factories.

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The restoration of the university entrance examination in 1977 started to train a new generation of leaders, including some of China’s current top officials. At the turn of the century, China started a rapid expansion of universities that resulted in the world’s largest higher education system, with more than 10 million students expected to graduate from higher education this year.

More than just quantity, Chinese universities have made strides in improving quality. Tsinghua University and Peking University’s programmes in engineering and technology are ranked among the world’s top, and they have become feeder schools for top science and engineering PhD programmes in the United States.

03:15

Gaokao: China's college entrance exam made even more stressful by Covid-19 outbreak

Gaokao: China's college entrance exam made even more stressful by Covid-19 outbreak
In 2019, before the outbreak of Covid-19, more than 700,000 Chinese students went overseas to study. By 2020, more than 5 million graduates of overseas universities had returned.
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