David Zweig's new book, The War for Chinese Talent in America, addresses the critical and timely topic of the intensifying cross-border mobility of Chinese talent, which carries significant implications for the evolving global landscape of science and education. During the early stages of reform and opening, China experienced an exodus of talent as individuals sought to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, among other fields, overseas, often overstaying beyond their academic and research commitments. This resulted in an unintended and undesirable “brain drain” for the nation.
As China's economy flourished, enabling greater investment in science and education, concerns emerged regarding the shortage of high-end talent within the country's scientific and political leadership. In response, Chinese institutions and government agencies have launched an array of programmes aimed at encouraging the return of highly skilled scientists, engineers and other professionals from OECD countries, particularly the US (pp. 17–18; 34–35). Having met with some success, these programmes have sparked considerable controversy, both domestically and internationally.
Zweig's book presents the most comprehensive examination to date of one such talent-recruitment effort, the Thousand Talents Program (TTP). After a brief review of the literature on brain drain, brain gain and brain circulation – or the diaspora option – in chapter one, he examines how the Chinese government has crafted strategies to lure talent back home or leverage its diaspora in chapter two. At the heart of the book lies an exploration of the tensions between the TTP and the China Initiative (CI), or more specifically, between the Organization Department under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Department of Justice under the first Trump administration. The Chinese organization has expanded its mandate from managing party and state personnel to attracting overseas talents while the US department launched the CI as a “whole-of-society” response.
Specifically, chapter three delineates the intricacies of the two programmes in question – TTP and CI. Chapter four delves into six cases through which the CI targeted ethnic Chinese and non-Chinese individuals, including those affiliated with the TTP. These cases are categorized into three groups – the guilty, the not-so-guilty and the innocent – to illustrate the varying degrees of involvement and culpability of these individuals. In chapter five, the narrative shifts to describe efforts by the Biden administration to terminate the CI while maintaining a strategic decoupling in the realms of science and education from China, deemed America's “systemic rival.”
This so-called war for Chinese talent has had significant repercussions. The US-based TTPers, recognized as top-tier talent, have become CI's victims. The actions also have led the US to disrupt its scientific and technological engagement with China, a fact that is underscored by a range of statistics detailed in the book (pp. 133–145). The implications of this disengagement are profound, negatively affecting both countries and marking a pivotal shift in the competitive landscape of global science and technology.
When the TTP was inaugurated in 2008, I, along with several other observers, anticipated that it would significantly enhance the calibre of scientific research in China through the participation of high-quality returnees. Many of these individuals were established scientists who were active at the frontier of international research. More crucially, it was expected that they would enhance the research environment within the country by serving as role models for domestic scientists. Regrettably, few TTPers were prepared to relocate to China on a permanent basis, which led to issues of “double dipping” – or conflicts of interest and commitment (p. 42).
This reluctance to fully commit and instances of unethical behaviour among some US-based TTPers prompted the Department of Justice to initiate the CI. The CI began with probes into TTPers but expanded to a broader scrutiny of ethnic Chinese academics, often approaching racial profiling. Under the guise of preventing the theft or illicit transfer of technology to China, the Federal Bureau of Investigation treated many of these academics as potential spies. Simultaneously, the National Institutes of Health and American universities also imposed sanctions on those affiliated with the TTP. As the book compellingly argues, many TTPers ultimately faced termination from their positions due to violations of organizational policies or professional codes of conduct, rather than actual espionage on behalf of China. This outcome underscores the complex and fraught nature of the relationship between academic collaboration, national security concerns, and issues of trust and bias within the scientific community.
In the early 1990s, Zweig began to develop an interest in researching the contributions of Chinese students and scholars in the US to the development of science and technology in their homeland after they had settled in their adopted country. His latest book is the culmination of information – both primary and secondary – gathered over approximately 30 years and continues his longstanding pursuit by concentrating on the TTP. The book is exceedingly rich in data and broad in scope, and Zweig meticulously cites the sources of these data and academic literature. Almost a quarter of the book's pages consist of endnotes and appendices, which prove invaluable for researchers pursuing this field of study. Despite Zweig's intention to craft a “less academic book” for a general readership, the narrative retains a scholarly tenor, both in the depth of its content and in its presentation style. This academic approach ensures the book's robustness and seriousness.
Although Zweig might be considered an outsider to China and its TTP, his unique access to key Chinese organizations has afforded him an insider's perspective. His engagement with the Organization Department, the entity responsible for initiating the TTP, through his interactions with the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank, allowed him to be embedded into China's “personnel system” (xxiii). Moreover, his role as an “expert witness” in the legal cases of two Chinese academics charged by the US Department of Justice (xxi) provided him with first-hand insights into the intricacies of these issues. This duality of being an outsider and yet gaining the perspective of an insider renders Zweig's study particularly distinctive and nuanced.
