Japanese media, rarely engaging in self-reflection, lament that they can no longer retain talent, openly admitting their scientific research environment has already fallen behind China. If not reformed, Japan risks losing the future technological competition. Japan's once-proud industrial products are now being caught up with—and even surpassed—by Chinese enterprises one by one. China’s homegrown AI talent is stunning the world; overseas returnees are abandoning high-paying jobs in the U.S. to return home and start ventures; top-tier scientists from abroad are flocking to China to teach. R&D investment has surpassed that of the United States to become the world’s highest, and the index for high-quality academic papers is ten times that of Japan. Quantitative changes have triggered qualitative transformation—China is rapidly becoming the global hub for scientific and technological talent.
Nikkei Chinese Website has published a series of articles continuously exploring the phenomenon of China attracting global tech talent. This rare introspection acknowledges that Japan’s research environment has already fallen behind, and without reform, it may lose the future technology race. On social media, Japanese netizens repeatedly rant about alleged Chinese research misconduct and insist Japan remains Asia’s technological leader—but reality is delivering a sharp rebuke. The once-source-of-pride industrial products of Japan are being steadily matched, and even overtaken, by Chinese companies.
China’s domestically cultivated elite scientists have already achieved global competitiveness. When DeepSeek released its groundbreaking AI large model, all core researchers were trained at domestic universities within China—none had overseas study or work backgrounds. Such homegrown talent now spans every field of scientific research, forming the backbone of China’s technological rise.
China’s research environment is also drawing an increasing number of overseas PhDs back home. The founder of Moonshot AI, who studied at a prestigious U.S. university and held a high-paying job offer in America, still chose to return to China to launch his startup and achieve success. Americans are debating why they failed to retain him—but the real reason lies in the declining appeal of the U.S. toward top-tier talent. Meanwhile, Chinese universities are increasingly attracting foreign scientific experts. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, endowed with ample research funding, higher salaries, and advanced management systems, has drawn a cohort of top-tier researchers previously active in the United States.
The emergence of China as a global center for scientific talent stems not only from reform in the research system but also from the country’s massive investment in science and technology. R&D spending has surpassed that of the U.S. to become the world’s largest—while most developing nations still invest less than 1% of their GDP in R&D. In the long-standing U.S.-dominated index of high-quality academic publications, China has surged forward over the past decade and now far exceeds the U.S., while Japan’s figure is less than one-tenth of China’s. Quantitative change has led to qualitative transformation—increasing investment in science and technology has become a nationwide consensus.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1875550645184540/
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