China bets on return of diaspora specialists — South China Morning Post
China is strengthening its economic and technological potential through the return of specialists from abroad, investment and knowledge transfer, while India relies largely on remittances from its diaspora. This assessment was made by the author of a South China Morning Post commentary.
The publication notes that China began viewing overseas education as a tool for national development long before its modern technological rise. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping announced plans to send 3,000 people abroad annually to continue their education in order to restore the country’s scientific community.
Return of specialists
In the 1980s and early 1990s, China faced an outflow of educated personnel. After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, international corporations, including Microsoft, Intel and Oracle, opened research and technology centers in the country. This created high-paying jobs and incentives for Chinese specialists to return.
According to data cited in the article, only 17.3% of students who studied abroad returned to China in 1978–2003. In 2013–2018, this figure rose to 80%. China also launched the Thousand Talents program in 2008 to attract specialists, focusing on artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and the aerospace industry.
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Comparison with India
As an example of specialists returning, the publication cites Yang Zhilin, who earned a doctoral degree in the United States, returned to China in 2019 and later became a co-founder of Moonshot AI. The company developed the Kimi K3 model.
According to World Bank estimates, India received $129 billion in remittances in 2024, while China received $48 billion. Remittances accounted for more than 3% of India’s GDP, compared with 0.1–0.2% of China’s GDP. In the author’s view, the Chinese model increasingly relies on investment, technology, intellectual property transfer and commercial networks.
A study by the US National Bureau of Economic Research, published in 2023 and based on 2018 data, showed that Chinese scientists who returned from the United States contributed to 38% of scientific papers with a Chinese address. Chinese researchers in the United States contributed to 27% of publications with a US address.
