China’s Thousand Talents Plan fuels US suspicions about overseas students, warns leading ex-Harvard academic Wei Yingjie
- The Thousand Talents plan aims to attract overseas Chinese academics to China; ex-Harvard professor Wei Yingjie is one such man
- But at the ‘two sessions’ meeting, Wei says drive to lure tech specialists home heightens fears about Beijing’s influence on foreign university campuses
An eminent Chinese professor has warned that an “over-promoted” programme to lure hi-tech talent home is fuelling foreign suspicions about international students’ ties to the Chinese government.
Wei Yingjie, a cardiovascular health specialist at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said during the annual gathering of the political elite known as the “two sessions” that China should also stop sending university outreach groups to US campuses.
The Thousand Talents Plan is a high-profile, state-backed recruitment drive set up in 2008 to attract overseas Chinese students and academics – particularly those in the science and technology field – with cash grants to fund their research and living costs.
However, US intelligence officials have accused it of “[facilitating] the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how” to China – a key point of contention in the ongoing trade war.
“If the US did this in China, it would be suspicious – who would believe that?” Wei, a delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said on the sidelines of a meeting of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.
“In recent years I think we haven’t grasped the scale of the propaganda for the Thousand Talents Plan, it’s been over-promoted,” said Wei, a former Harvard professor who was one of the first recruits for the Thousand Talents Plan back in 2009.