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Change Chinese returnee rules

Nature volume 474, page 285 (2011)Cite this article

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Developing countries rely on free movement of skilled scientists for the inflow of information and technology. China's rigid citizenship regulations are hindering the return of highly trained Chinese scientists from abroad, and must be changed if modernization is to be effective.

Of more than 1.62 million Chinese who left to study abroad before 2009, less than one-third have returned. China was the second largest country of origin for science and engineering students in US higher education in 2009 (see http://go.nature.com/evj2t9). Almost 90% of Chinese scientists and engineers trained overseas remained there.

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  1. International Centre for Research on Environment and Development (CIRED), France

    Jun Li

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  1. Jun Li
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Correspondence to Jun Li.

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Li, J. Change Chinese returnee rules. Nature 474, 285 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/474285d

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  1. Yiming Li

    It is true that a large number of Chinese researchers stay overseas after years of study/work, yet I am not convinced that the citizenship regulation being the root. Given the fact that possibly a larger fraction of Indian scientists and engineers remaining in the US or Europe, I am curious about to which extent the dual-citizenship could encourage the return of intellectuals. Introducing the dual-citizenship could even results in more Chinese getting a foreign citizenship (who are hesitating to do so now).

    The development of science and technology of the developing countries benefits from, but never solely depends on the inflow of information. A friendly and supportive research environment will be the ultimate attraction for Chinese scientists/engineers overseas.

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