Keeping China's best and brightest at home - By Kent Ewing

"Despite the large numbers, however, the Chinese emigration problem pales when compared in percentages with places in the developing world."

Keeping China's best and brightest at home

By Kent Ewing
Jun 15, 2007
Source

HONG KONG - As Western countries worry over China's rise on the international stage, they hold a key advantage in the competition for power and influence: many of China's best and brightest go abroad for a university education, enjoy their lives in the West, and never return home to share their knowledge and expertise with the motherland.

A recent study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the nation's top think-tank, shows that China is losing more first-rate minds to the West than any other country in the world. The phenomenon amounts to a new form of colonialism in which Western countries exploit intellectual talent rather than raw materials.

China is not the only victim of this international form of brain-picking, but it tops the list. More than 70% of the Chinese students who go abroad to study don't return home, according to the study. Of the 1.06 million Chinese who have traveled overseas to study since 1978, CASS found that only 275,000 have returned.

And despite torrid economic growth of nearly 10% for the past three decades, the problem does not seem to be getting any better. In 2005, 118,500 students left China for study abroad. By 2010, 200,000 are expected to enroll in foreign universities.

All told, according to CASS, the Chinese diaspora holds 35 million people scattered in more than 150 countries, making China the world's largest source of emigrants.

Yang Xiaojing, one of the authors of the study, was pleased by the international competitiveness of Chinese students but worried about the country's future if the brain drain continues.

"This shows that Chinese students overseas, especially those with extraordinary abilities, are a real hit in the global tug-of-war for talent," he told the state-run China Daily. "While strictly controlling the inflow of foreign labor to protect the interests of [their] domestic workforce, most developed countries spare no effort to attract the best talent from around the world."

Yang added this warning: "Against a backdrop of economic globalization, an excessive brain drain will inevitably threaten the human-resources security and eventually the national economic and social security of any country."

Previously, Beijing had embraced the concept of "brain circulation". The aim was for students to study in the West and then bring back their expertise to China for the advancement of the motherland. In addition, emigration reduced competition in the job market, which is cutthroat for university graduates in China, and brain drain seemed of no great consequence in a country where last week 10 million students sat the annual university entrance exam. Emigration also brings US$20 billion in annual remittances to the country from Chinese living overseas, according to a 2006 United Nations report.

But with seven of every 10 students remaining abroad while China suffers from a dearth of expertise in important sectors of the economy, the thinking in Beijing has changed. Now the government is offering incentives for students and professionals to return. Issued in March, these include exempting professionals in undermanned fields - science, engineering, and corporate management stand out - from the burdensome hukou (house registration) system, which can limit where a person lives and works.

Low-interest loans and higher salaries are also being offered to returnees, as well as coveted places for their children in the country's most prestigious universities. The Ministry of Personnel has even called for "a talent security alarm system" to monitor emigration.

Meanwhile, the diaspora continues to expand. What will it take to persuade those who are potentially some of China's best and brightest stars to come home?

"Of the many reasons for the brain drain of Chinese students," the CASS study said, "huge social and economic gaps in terms of personal income, employment opportunities, working conditions, research facilities and living standards are the main ones."

Put plainly, talented graduates can make a lot more money outside China, enjoy a better work environment, avoid rampant corruption, and plan a family without worrying about the one-child policy.

Emigrants must also be daunted by the unemployment rate for university graduates in China. Since 2002, it has averaged 30%. Part of the problem is the education system itself, which has been unable to keep up with the rapidly changing needs of Chinese society. There is a shortage of qualified faculty and courses in finance, management, information technology and other fields that are in growing demand in the booming Chinese economy. At the same time, there are far too many graduates in the humanities and social sciences who battle for jobs in a glutted market.

The potential for social unrest among unemployed students rightly worries the Chinese leadership. Those worries must have been heightened last week when a riot ensued after a female student was beaten by city inspectors for illegally selling fashion accessories on a street in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province. The rioters were mostly other students from different universities in Zhengzhou.

The Zhengzhou incident is a painful reminder that the Chinese educational system is caught in a difficult catch-up game with the country's runaway economy. It is no wonder that gifted students opt to go abroad and that, once there, many choose not to return.

Despite the large numbers, however, the Chinese emigration problem pales when compared in percentages with places in the developing world. World Bank figures show that a quarter to half of university-educated professionals in the world's poorest countries live abroad, and the figure is as high as 80% in Haiti and Jamaica.

The brain drain is particularly acute in Africa, a continent that will need its educated professional class if it is to rise out of its post-colonial mire of poverty and corruption. But how can a country like Ghana cope with the challenge when 47% of its university-educated citizens live abroad? Things will also be tough in Mozambique, which has lost 45% of its educated class, and in Kenya (38%), Somalia and Angola (both 33%).

The list goes on. Indeed, there are more African scientists in the United States than in all of the 54 countries of Africa.

It is hard to blame students for fleeing their impoverished homelands for greener educational pastures when 90% of the world's funding for research and development in higher education goes to the US, Britain, Australia, Germany and Japan. Developing countries simply cannot compete in the global contest for talent. In an age where, more than ever, knowledge equals power and wealth, this amounts to a new form of colonialism holding poor countries back.

While in sheer numbers the world's most populous countries - China and India - appear to suffer the most from brain drain, studies show they lose only about 5% of their graduates. For China, however, that has become too much as it sorely needs the expertise of many of its citizens living abroad.

No doubt a Shanghai survey published this year in the Labor Daily has added to official concern. The survey showed that 36.9% of the city's middle-school students hope to become US citizens one day.

Kent Ewing is a teacher and writer at Hong Kong International School. He can be reached at kewing@hkis.edu.hk.