Mathematician Zhang Yitang says he left US for China due to political climate
Researchers in computers, chips or anything related to the military industry ‘need to be especially careful’, Shanghai native warns
Mathematician Zhang Yitang, who joined Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou from California in June, has called the wave of Chinese researchers exiting the US a “positive trend”.
Zhang, known for his prime number research, told Phoenix TV, a partially state-owned broadcaster, in a programme aired on Monday that he had been thinking about returning to the mainland “in light of recent international political issues that have strained China-US relations”.
“Many Chinese scholars and professors in the US have already returned, and many others are still considering it,” Zhang said. “I think this is a positive trend.”
Zhang said that one advantage of studying mathematics, especially theoretical mathematics, was not having to be tied to a particular place.