In an official report in July 2024, the communist party laid out plans to promote “modernisation with Chinese characteristics”, including to “explore the establishment of an immigration system for high-tech talents”.
The report also vowed to “open up talent exchange channels between universities, research institutes and enterprises” and “improve the mechanism for overseas talent introduction and form a talent system with international competitiveness”.
According to the South China Morning Post, the changes could resemble the US’s green card system, including offering international scientists permanent residency.
Although there have been some attempts in the past to attract overseas talent, the proposals would be “a big change from the status quo”, David Weeks, COO of Sunrise International, told The PIE News.
China’s system for managing permanent residence permits was updated in December 2023, with initial recipients being “individuals who have made outstanding contributions to China’s economic and social development” across education, science, culture and healthcare, Bonard China branch director Grace Zhu told The PIE.
According to experts, the criteria could be expanded to attract more international researchers and educators to China.
“The changes might mitigate the cost and uncertainty of applying for visas and make foreign scholars feel more included in their Chinese host community.
“However… I expect that we’ll see a few pilots of this for elite mid-career scholars, or perhaps a geographic pilot in Beijing or Shanghai,” said Weeks.
With China’s stable economic development in recent years, we anticipate a steady increase in international researchers
Grace Zhu, Bonard
Isabel Xu of the China-Britain Business Council highlighted “procedural and systemic issues” such as a lack of transparency, slow decision-making and bureaucratic delays that “need to be addressed before launching a new immigration channel”.
In 2017, China rolled out a three-tier classification system for work visas, aimed at ‘high end’ talent such as editors of renowned journals, academic prize winners or Fortune 500 company leaders, according to weeks.
“The challenge with the old system was that only about 16% of expats qualified for ‘A Class’ work visas”, he said.
This favoured mid-career professionals but underweighted people with potential such as recently graduated post-doctorate scientists looking for a Research associate university job.
“A green card system would ameliorate the issues with work visas, such as the cost and uncertainty of visa applications and document authentication, and the power imbalance with an employer which sometimes results in late salary payments and difficulty in switching jobs,” Weeks added.
Other challenges faced by scholars on work and residency permits in China include bureaucratic obstacles such as the delay of salary payments, needing permission to travel out of the country and difficulties transferring money.
Zhu pointed to the considerable cultural and linguistic barriers faced by foreigners in China, including different working habits and work environments with different methods of project management and a lack of administrative transparency.
Furthermore, the high cost of international schools and international health insurance create barriers to some people coming to China in their 30s or 40s on a salary in academia, said Weeks.
According to China’s ministry of education, there were over 125,000 international student graduates from Chinese universities in 2023, but data about scholars is less readily available.
In 2021, the US lost published research scientists to other countries, with China gaining more than 2,408 scientific authors compared to 2017, when it gained just 116.
The number of foreign residents living in China recovered last year to 85% of pre-pandemic levels, caused by the national immigration agency issuing various types of residence permits to 711,000 foreign residents, though it did not share the reasons for the permits.
If you’re the best physicist from Botswana, getting a US visa is very hard, but going to China is much more feasible
David Weeks, Sunrise International
Bonard said it expects a “steady increase in numbers” of international researchers travelling to China since the pandemic due to the country’s stable economic developments and efforts from the government to update the immigration system.
However, easing immigration systems is only one part of attracting more scholars.
“Having the best scientific output requires having good funding and physical assets [which China has], but it also requires having the best PhDs from around the world who will become future leaders in academia. China has a few areas where it really excels to attract these students,” said Weeks.
And yet, China is much more willing to give visas to students from sub-Saharan Africa, second only to France in the number of international students coming from the region.
“If you’re the best physicist from Botswana, getting a US visa is very hard, but going to China is much more feasible,” he added.
The government report gave considerable weight to promoting “high-level scientific and technological self-reliance”, recognising the need for greater cross-cultural academic exchange to enhance China’s competitiveness in global scientific innovation.
“This internationalised innovation contributes to China playing a more active role in global cooperation, boosting China’s influence and discourse power.
“At the same time… this cross-cultural academic exchange helps broaden research perspectives, inspires new academic insights and innovative thinking in academic fields,” said Zhu.