Would you train your workers and then squeeze them out by creating a hostile environment? Would you drive out these workers so they can go work for a competitor? The answer is obviously no. Yet this is what’s happening now in the U.S., with a rising number of U.S.-trained Chinese scientists leaving this country.
In 2021 alone, 1,400 U.S.-trained scientists have left their corporate positions or relinquished tenured positions at top-tier American universities such as Harvard, MIT and Princeton. This trend has grown since former President Donald Trump promoted anti-China rhetoric during his term. To make things worse, many of these Chinese scientists are returning to China to compete against the United States.
At the same time, the flow of Chinese students to the U.S. is declining. During the first six months in 2022, the U.S. issued 31,055 academic visas to Chinese nationals, down from 64,261 for the same period in 2019. Chinese students make up 16% of all U.S. students in STEM fields, and a significant percentage of STEM workers in the U.S. are of Chinese descent, which means this problem could affect STEM fields for years into the future.
