[photopress:students_abroad.jpg,full,alignright]The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has released The Report on Global Political and Security in 2007. When analyzing the global migration issue, it says that an increasing number of Chinese people have moved abroad. Such movement has brought both positive and negative effects under the current global political situation. The report points out that China is experiencing the most serious brain drain problem in the world.
Since the 1980s, more and more Chinese students have gone abroad to study and two-thirds of them have settled in these countries after graduation.
Since 2002, more than 100,000 Chinese people have gone to study abroad every year. However, only 20,000-30,000 of them have chosen to come back after finishing their studies.
Overseas Chinese and the emigrants from other countries have made great contribution to the economy of the country where they stay. At the same time, however, the large emigration has led to a huge brain drain of their home country, and for that matter, China has suffered a great loss.
Of all the Chinese that go abroad, many are well-educated people. It is estimated that about 300,000 Chinese people, who originally came from Chinese mainland and majored in a specialized area of study, now settle abroad. Many of these people can be termed as being of the country’s elite.
In some departments of Peking University, for example, about 76% of students have moved to the U.S. China, which has an urgent need for talented people, has paid dearly.
The report does not mention, but perhaps should, two beneficial moves.
The first is the number of highly trained Chinese — especially in management — who are returning to China.
The second, is that by having a substantial group of people overseas who see, and who will always see China as their homeland has a beneficial effect on China trade. There simply are no hard and fast figures to give to this but it must be accepted that at least part of China’s export boom — the largest the world has ever known — can be laid at the door of expatriate Chinese.
Source: China.org.cn and research.
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