Drive

Since 2000, over 50000 Chinese Ph.D. students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math have remained in the United States following.

Already, the [eight universities](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/us/politics/china-hong-kong-trump-student-visas.html) currently targeted by the proclamation include some of China’s top universities in the [C9 League](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C9_League). [tone down their anti-China rhetoric](https://www.vox.com/22558949/china-violence-asian-americans), making clearer separations between the Chinese Communist Party and the people of China. And countries like India simply don’t have the equivalent talent based on the [quality of their universities](https://www.livemint.com/Education/GP0k0R7jySJvdUQcoyxMAN/What-India-can-learn-from-Chinas-rise-in-higher-education.html) or their [research specialties](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23024-z), [like AI](https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/3/22310840/ai-research-global-growth-china-us-paper-citations-index-report-2020), compared to China. So, while the threat from espionage is substantial, the policies put in place have had the unintended consequence of making it much harder to attract and retain Chinese talent — a fact recognized internally by Beijing in a [push to boost return rates](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3035546/tough-us-immigration-policy-could-be-key-china-winning). [removed due to procedural issues](https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2022/08/22/what-happened-to-the-bills-on-employment-based-immigration/?sh=41b274365658). So while the “pull” factors for reverse migration have not been nearly enough for the Chinese Communist Party to reach the end goal of [90 percent return rates](https://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Emerging-Technological-Edge-Assessing/dp/0521712335) for graduate students envisioned by Deng, the United States has been helping in recent years with the “push” factors to reverse this trend. This guilt by association is reinforced by high-profile, but unsubstantiated, arrests in recent years, like those of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor [Gang Chen](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/science/gang-chen-mit-china.html) and University of Southern California professor [Xi Xiaoxing](https://china.usc.edu/xiaoxing-xi-defending-chinese-researchers), both of which help to create an unwelcoming environment for Chinese students and researchers. [Our research](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1509/jmr.11.0394?journalCode=mrja) found that these high stay rates were primarily driven by economic incentives — the overall compensation that a Chinese national could earn in the United States in the private sector or academia well outpaced what they could hope to earn in their homeland at the time. Given the broadness of the policy, reports suggest that it may affect [3,000–5,000 applicants per year](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-students/us-planning-to-cancel-visas-of-chinese-graduate-students-sources-idUSKBN2342AX). [doctoral students](https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/estimating-the-number-of-chinese-stem-students-in-the-united-states/#:~:text=Across%2520those%2520STEM%2520fields%252C%2520there,half%2520at%2520the%2520graduate%2520level.). Army to power [next-generation tactical gear](https://www.armytimes.com/news/2021/10/11/heres-the-new-gear-being-readied-by-the-armys-one-stop-shop-for-all-things-soldier/). [cutting-edge research](https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/95/2/698/58091/Chinese-Graduate-Students-and-U-S-Scientific?redirectedFrom=fulltext) and founding start-ups [valued collectively at $100 billion](https://nfap.com/research/new-nfap-policy-brief-immigrant-entrepreneurs-and-u-s-billion-dollar-companies/).