As China and US spar over tech, scientists would rather not talk about their talent awards
- Chinese researchers facing visa issues and tighter scrutiny in America – especially those who are part of schemes like Beijing’s Thousand Talents Plan
- Programmes to lure brightest minds to China are now highly sensitive and the US has linked them to forced technology transfers and loss of know-how
As the trade war goes on, the focus is now on technology. Washington wants Beijing to stop forcing joint venture partners to transfer technologies to their mainland collaborators, and is scrutinising the work of US-based Chinese researchers. In the first of a series, Kristin Huang and Kinling Lo look at how a Chinese talent scheme has drawn the attention of US security bodies
For communications engineering professor Alan Liu, going to America for work is no longer an option.
Liu returned to China seven years ago after a stint as a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado Boulder’s electrical, computer and energy engineering department.
“I haven’t been back to the United States since then … and I don’t want to go back because it’s becoming increasingly troublesome,” said Liu, who is now a doctoral supervisor at a prestigious Chinese university.
He said the door appeared to be closing for Chinese academics in America. “The visa for the US is hard to get – fewer US universities are willing to accept Chinese visiting scholars, and US professors are reluctant to invite Chinese since it may trigger an investigation.”
The academic is one of many Chinese to benefit from the Thousand Talents Plan, a state-sponsored scheme set up in 2008 to lure the world’s brightest minds to work in China – mainly Chinese researchers educated or employed overseas, and particularly in hi-tech areas.