At least 1,400 US-based ethnic Chinese scientists exited American institutions for mainland China, study reveals
- ‘Chilling effect’ felt from Washington policies like Trump-era initiative that targeted suspected theft of technical secrets and intellectual property
- If fear isn’t alleviated, high risk US will see ‘underutilisation of scientific talent’ and lose out to China and other countries, say authors
At least 1,400 US-based ethnic Chinese scientists switched their affiliation last year from American to Chinese institutions, according to a joint report by academics from Harvard, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The high number illustrates a “chilling effect” resulting from US government policies deterring research and academic activity by scientists of Chinese descent and suggests American research could suffer, said the Asian American Scholar Forum, an advocacy group that published the findings.
“We see an increase in that trend,” said Yu Xie, a sociology professor at Princeton University as he presented the report at a webinar on Monday. He added that the US had been “losing talent to China for a while and particularly after the China Initiative”.
“Our study reveals the widespread fear among Chinese-origin scientists in the US arising from conducting routine research and academic activities,” Xie and his four fellow authors from the three US universities concluded.
“If this fear is not alleviated, there are significant risks of an underutilisation of scientific talent as well as losing scientific talent to China and other countries,” they added.