Key points
- Trump’s government is making cuts to research funding
- His administration announced plans to revoke visas of Chinese students
- Chinese Academy of Sciences invited “talents dismissed by US NIH”
- The United States is shooting itself in the foot: Zhang Xiaoming
ISLAMABAD: China had already been gaining ground in its competition with the United States for scientific talent, successfully attracting some of the world’s top researchers to its universities—individuals awarded Nobel Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants, and a host of other prestigious academic honours.
Now, policies under the Trump administration may further strengthen China’s position, according to The New York Times.
President Trump’s government is making deep cuts to research funding, which has long underpinned the United States’ reputation as a global leader in science and technology.
Restricting students’ admissions
At the same time, he is criticising the country’s leading universities and attempting to restrict the admission of international students.
Chinese scientists, in particular, are facing increasing scrutiny, with US officials suggesting they could pose national security risks by transferring valuable knowledge to China.
Some Chinese-born scientists have come under investigation or have even been arrested. Just last week, the Trump administration announced plans to “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students studying in “critical fields.”
China courts talent
As a consequence, many academics are beginning to consider opportunities elsewhere.
Chinese institutions have moved swiftly to seize the moment. Universities in Hong Kong and Xi’an have announced simplified transfer procedures for students from Harvard, while an advertisement from a group affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences invited “talents dismissed by the US NIH”—the National Institutes of Health—to join them.
“The United States is shooting itself in the foot,” said Zhang Xiaoming, an expert in anatomy who left the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas last year to head the medical education programme at Westlake University, a research institution in the tech hub of Hangzhou.
