The number of Chinese scientists returning from abroad increased more than 40 times in less than two decades, going from 31 researchers per year in 2004 to 1,409 in 2022, for a total of nearly 10,000 repatriated scientists, more than half coming from the United States. This trend is contributing to China's growing presence in elite scientific research, according to a study released by the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions.
The study, titled "Brain Circulation and Knowledge Creation: Evidence from Elite Chinese Scientists," was conducted by Shihang Ru, Heiwai Tang, Bernard Yeung and Xinbei Zhou, who analyzed more than 600,000 articles published between 2003 and 2022 in selective scientific journals in the fields of chemistry, physics and life sciences, covering more than 1.2 million researchers from approximately 65,000 institutions. During this period, the proportion of articles with at least one author based in China went from about 4% to 27%, and the percentage of citations attributed to Chinese scientists based in China increased from 2% to 25%.
The researchers found that repatriated scientists not only contribute to individual scientific output but also improve the performance of colleagues and institutions where they start working. Collaboration with a returning researcher provided an increase of approximately 8% in research quality in the year of that collaboration and approximately 15% three years later. In a typical institution, the arrival of one more researcher from abroad was associated with an estimated 17% improvement in the quality of research conducted by local scientists.
China began launching specific overseas talent recruitment programs in 2006, including the Thousand Talents program in 2008 and a similar initiative for younger researchers in 2011. According to the authors, the value of recruiting scientists back to the country results not only from the productivity of the returning scientists themselves, but also from how their presence transforms laboratories, collaborations and research cultures.
