The Biden-Xi summit outside San Francisco in November addressed trade, the economy and military issues, but skirted the central issue of immigration. Data and analysis show that foreign-born scientists and engineers remain critical to America’s technological future. While immigration could be the US’s secret weapon in competing with China and Chinese companies, it is US domestic policy, not foreign policy, that determines America’s openness.
“Admitting more foreign-born scientists and engineers will be essential for the U.S. economy and American companies to compete with China and its companies in the 21st century,” according to new research from the National Foundation for American Policy. “Americans will benefit from the increased innovation, productivity, and economic growth that these immigrants and visa holders bring, whether the United States pursues a policy of mutually beneficial economic relations with China or adopts a more confrontational stance.”
China’s talent plans
Many U.S. lawmakers have appeared hostile or indifferent to attracting and retaining high-skilled talent. For many years, however, the Chinese government has pursued policies to attract or lure back scientists and engineers. A study in Science found that these policies are producing results.
“Our empirical results show that China’s Young Thousand Talents programme has been successful in recruiting and nurturing high-calibre scientists, and that YTT scientists outperform their foreign counterparts in post-return publications, mainly due to their access to greater funding and larger research teams,” concludes a report by Dongbo Shi, Weichen Liu and Yanbo Wang. “These results demonstrate the potential of talent programmes as a policy tool for countries to attract and promote the productivity of expatriate scientists.”
In recent years, the Chinese government has revamped its talent programme. A new effort called Qiming offers signing bonuses of $420,000 to $700,000 and other perks for international scientists to work in China, according to Reuters.
