【By Wang Yi, Observer News】In the latest global ranking of top universities published by the U.S. media outlet "U.S. News & World Report," Tsinghua University in China has climbed to 11th place, just one step away from the top ten. At the same time, Peking University and Zhejiang University have also risen to 25th and 45th places respectively.
The rise in rankings of China's top universities has drawn attention from abroad. On July 15, the South China Morning Post reported that in this ranking covering 105 countries and 2,250 universities, five years ago only two Chinese universities were in the top 100—Tsinghua at 50th and Peking at 68th. Now, 15 Chinese universities are in the top 100, showing the remarkable progress made by Chinese universities in a few years.
The newspaper pointed out that this "upward trend" is due to China's strategic investment in education, scientific research, and talent recruitment over the past several decades, which has attracted a large number of students and overseas faculty members. In contrast, the United States, due to the policies of the Trump administration, prejudice against China, and cuts in research funding, is driving more and more outstanding scholars and students away.
Talent flow trends are reversing
"A quieter and more subtle front has emerged, reshaping the global order and determining future winners and losers—a competition for talent." The Asia Times noted on May that there is a "talent war" between China and the United States, and unlike before, "the once one-way flow of talent to the United States has reversed, and the channels of talent transfer are also changing."
The report points out that thousands of high-skilled professionals, including Chinese-Americans, are leaving the United States to seek new opportunities in China and other countries and regions. This is not just a reversal, but a redistribution of global intelligence, significantly changing the balance of global innovation.
Charles Lieber, a renowned American chemist and nanoscientist involved in the U.S. "China Initiative," is reportedly planning to leave the United States to teach in China. Photo.
The South China Morning Post cited data stating that during the 2019-20 academic year, China was the largest source of international students in the United States, with 372,000 Chinese students crossing the Pacific to study. By the 2023-24 academic year, this number had dropped to 277,000, a reduction of more than a quarter in just five years, making India the largest source of international students in the United States instead.
Research by sociologist She Yu from Princeton University also found that nearly 20,000 Chinese-American scientists left the United States between 2010 and 2021.
The so-called "China Initiative" launched by the Trump administration in 2018 placed a large number of Chinese-American researchers under "witch-hunt" investigations—although most cases were eventually dismissed due to lack of evidence, the initiative was ultimately halted by the Biden administration in 2022. However, its chilling effect was significant, forcing many talents to return to China or go to other countries for development.
The "cooling" of Sino-U.S. academic exchanges has also spread to the level of university cooperation. In January this year, the University of Michigan suddenly terminated its 20-year partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University citing "national security risks." Under the strict scrutiny of U.S. government funds, the University of California, Berkeley recently had to announce the abandonment of all ownership of the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, similar to the Georgia Institute of Technology's announcement last year to exit its branch in Shenzhen.
These trends may have lasting impacts. Rick Carew, a part-time professor of finance and economics at Fordham University's business school, stated directly that Chinese-born scholars have made great contributions to American academic research. As political tensions between the two countries intensify, they have become targets of U.S. government scrutiny. Meanwhile, the generous financial support provided by Chinese universities and the opportunity to teach the next generation of top Chinese students in their native language have made these top Chinese scholars more willing to return to China.
"China will soon catch up with the United States, even surpass it"
The South China Morning Post also believes that increased investment in scientific research in China is one of the main reasons for the return of talent. China aims to improve its position in the industrial value chain through high-tech investments, not only setting the goal of becoming a technological power by 2035, but also placing greater emphasis on research.
A March report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed that China's R&D investment reached over $780 billion in 2023, reaching 96% of the U.S. level, while this ratio was only 72% a decade ago.
At the same time, after China's research output surpassed that of the United States in 2017, the number of papers frequently cited internationally has continued to rise. The "Springer Nature 2024 China Impact Report" pointed out that this indicates that Chinese research results are receiving more attention from the international research community.
Bingqi Xiong, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said that in the past five years, China has offered better salaries, more research funding, housing subsidies, and healthcare benefits to scientific researchers, attracting a large number of overseas talents to teach in China.
The Hong Kong media pointed to Zhejiang University as one of the successful examples of China's talent strategy. This university, known as the "cradle of science and technology entrepreneurship," has not only attracted many American scientists and outstanding students, but has also nurtured a batch of startups leading the forefront of technology.
Robot dog developed by Chinese companies, Yunsheng Technology
This year, Liang Wenfeng, a graduate of Zhejiang University, founded an artificial intelligence (AI) company called DeepSeek, which has caused a stir globally with its low-cost, high-performance, open-source large model. Most of the team members are young scholars trained domestically in China. Additionally, the company DEEP Robotics, which focuses on robot dog development, was also founded by a Zhejiang University graduate. These two companies are among the "Hangzhou Six Dragons" enterprises with significant influence in the high-tech field.
"China annually produces about 1.4 million engineering graduates, continuously providing fresh blood to domestic tech companies like Huawei and BYD to compete with Silicon Valley," Carew remarked. Thanks to the engineering talent, advanced manufacturing ecosystem, and supportive government policies, China's scientific and technological innovation has achieved unprecedented acceleration.
Last year, the New York Federal Reserve Bank also found that the chip export restrictions imposed by the United States on China starting in 2022, intended to curb China's technological advancement, actually caused hundreds of billions of dollars in losses for U.S. companies and promoted independent innovation in China's cutting-edge sectors such as semiconductors.
In contrast, China has always maintained an open and encouraging attitude towards attracting international students and scholars and promoting Sino-U.S. academic exchanges. In May this year, Tsinghua University built four new dormitories aimed at talent in the fields of science, engineering, and AI, one of which is specifically designed for international students to enhance the university's global influence.
China's growing laboratories, research parks, and university ecosystems are nurturing world-class research achievements, and the global rankings of China's top research institutions continue to rise. Chinese researchers are constantly making breakthroughs in quantum computing, AI, and biomedicine... The Asia Times predicts that if these development trends continue, China may soon be able to match or even surpass the United States in the highest realms of innovation and technology.
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