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China was already scoring wins in its rivalry with the United States for scientific talent. It had drawn some of the world’s best researchers to its campuses, people decorated with Nobel Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants and seemingly every other academic laurel on offer.
Now the Trump administration’s policies might soon bolster China’s efforts.
Under President Trump, the United States is slashing the research funding that helped establish its reputation as the global leader in science and technology. The president is also attacking the country’s premier universities, and trying to limit the enrollment of international students.
Scientists from China are under particular pressure, as U.S. officials have said that they may pose a national security threat by funneling valuable knowledge to China. Chinese-born scientists have been investigated or even arrested. Last week, the Trump administration said it would work to “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students in “critical fields.”
As a result, many scholars are looking elsewhere.
And Chinese institutions have been quick to try and capitalize. Universities in Hong Kong and Xi’an said they would offer streamlined admission to transfer students from Harvard. An ad from a group with links to the Chinese Academy of Sciences welcomed “talents who have been dismissed by the U.S. NIH,” or National Institutes of Health.
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“The United States is shooting itself in the foot,” said Zhang Xiaoming, an anatomy expert who last year left the Baylor College of Medicine, in Texas, to lead the medical education program at Westlake University, a research university in the tech hub of Hangzhou.
