[Vnbiz] China is luring the best and brightest home Posted: Thursday, January 24, 2008 9:49 AM

[Tai Phan]

China is luring the best and brightest home Posted: Thursday, January 24,
2008 9:49 AM
Filed Under: Beijing,
China<http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/category/1109.aspx> By
Mark Mullen, NBC News Correspondent

 The other day at a coffee shop in Beijing, I noticed a group of college
students in line in front of me sharing stories of a fun night out. The
students were all Westerners and, as one told me, they were here for a year
of study in China.

The presence of Western students reminded me of the inverse: The large
number of Chinese students on U.S. campuses, such as those at the University
of California, Berkeley, many of whom I met when I lived in the Bay Area.

But there's one big difference between these two groups of students: Since
1978, according to the Chinese government, more than 70 percent of all the
Chinese who studied abroad – in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world –
chose not to return
home.<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-06/01/content_884824.htm>

According to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Services, between
1978 and 2006, about 1.06 million Chinese went to study overseas – but just
275,000 returned home during that period.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2093739,00.html>Of those who
stayed overseas, many proceeded to graduate, find work, and become citizens
of their adopted countries.

The trend often had mutually beneficial results: for example in the U.S.,
employers had access to many of China's top students, and the graduates had
better, more lucrative job prospects without having to compete for work in
China's employment system, which some accused of being influenced too much
by nepotism and corruption.

But things now are changing.  A reverse brain drain is underway. With
China's economy on fire – it's growing at a double-digit rate each year –
and the prospects of a better lifestyle available, many of China's best and
brightest are starting to return home.
*

Reverse brain drain
*And China is helping to lure them. China's labor department has created a
plan targeting 200,000 students based overseas. Specifically, the government
plans to offer preferential policies when it comes to income, welfare,
housing, and even education for job holder's
children<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/30/content_883647.htm>
.

Perhaps the biggest draw has nothing to do with new government initiatives:
The prospect of economic opportunities here are even greater than those once
imagined in the West. According to many economic forecasts, China is poised
to overtake the United States and become the world's biggest economy in a
little more than 20 years. With little inherited wealth, this is a country
of self-made millionaires, a fact not lost on Chinese living in the West.

If returning Chinese think they won't find Western bling in this communist
country, they should think again.  For those who can afford it, there are
plenty of BMWs and Mercedes for sale here. One can live in a million dollar
home, shop at Prada, and if they miss American fast food, go to a McDonalds.
And because labor costs are so low, one can have two full-time servants
working six days a week for a relative bargain – so the quality of life for
someone returning can be very good.

But for the Chinese government, luring their best students back, who would
otherwise be lost to other countries, is about more than saving face.

Officials now contend that "the lack of first class scientists and research
pioneers is the main thing hindering China's innovation capability." That
declaration shows that Chinese officials now have the sobering belief that
retaining the best students is crucial to the country's economic and social
security.
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