China is using financial incentives and appeals to national pride to reverse the drain of top science and engineering talent to the West. China’s spending on research and development (R&D) has steadily increased over the last 10 years and now amount to 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The United States spends 2.7 percent of its GDP on R&D, but China’s share is much higher than most other developing countries. Although China excels in certain scientific fields, such as nanotechnology, it struggles in other areas and has never had a Nobel Prize winner for research conducted in mainland China and ranked only 10th in the number of patents granted in the United States in 2008. Chinese students have been leaving at an increasing rate for several years. Almost 180,000 scientists left in 2008, nearly 25 percent more than in 2007. Those who obtained science or engineering degrees were among the least likely to return to China. However, China has been able to draw some prominent scientists back. Many scientists are lured by their patriotism, their desire to affect change, and their belief in the Chinese government. “I felt I owed China something,” says Shi Yigong, a molecular biologist who left Princeton University and returned to China last year. Many Asian scientists also confronted a glass ceiling in the United States, Shi says. Since his arrival in China, Shi has been actively recruiting more scientists to leave the West. In less than two years, he has recruited about 18 post doctoral fellows, almost all of them coming from the United States.
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