Statistics from the Ministry of Personnel show that nearly 300,000 Chinese have gone abroad to study during the past two decades, of whom, 110,000 have returned after finishing their studies. In the last few years, the number of returned students has risen at an annual rate of 13 percent. In 1998, a total of 7,379 Chinese students returned after attaining academic achievements in other countries, a figure five times that of 1990. By 1999, half of the 12 Chinese Harvard MBA graduates had been back to China for development. Back in China, some returned students have found employment in research and higher learning institutions, or entered government institutions, while a majority of them have chosen to start their own businesses.
Reasons for Coming Back
In August 1999, 26-year-old Shao Yibo, obtaining an MBA degree from Harvard University, returned to China and established eachnet.com, the first web site of its kind on the Chinese mainland and currently the largest Chinese site for online commodities trading in the world.
“I want to do my own business,” said Shao. “In the United States, we Chinese are like screws on a big machine, while back in China, we build our own machines.”
When Liu Chang intended to come back several years ago, he worried that he might not be able to leave China again. “But now, I’m free of such worries for the State has formulated policies allowing us to come and go of our own will. And many friends of mine also have come back.” Liu has joined hands with China International Publishing Group in running an English lifestyle magazine.
Wang Chaoyong resigned his post at the world’s largest investment bank, Morgan Stanley, where he earned an annual salary of US$1 million. He returned and established a private investment institution—China Equity. “Except for the stock market, which is preserved for securities dealers, the current policy environment allows me to do business in 99 percent of the sectors,” Wang said.
As one of the founders of Canada Cada-Visa International Consulting Inc., Yan Changming came back in 1998 to act as head of the company’s China branch. He now concurrently serves as secretary-general of the Canadian Branch of the Western Returned Students’ Association and legal representative and general manager of the Association’s Consulting Center. Yan said that he has the advantage of being a bridge between Chinese students abroad and domestic businesses and institutions.
Huge Wealth
Preliminary statistics show that the number of domestic technology-based enterprises registered under the name of returned students amounted to some 3,000 last year, involving 10,000 returned students and with an annual output value of 10 billion yuan.
Yan Changming said the Chinese students studying abroad are a huge asset for China, especially in today’s world which features a fierce competition for talented people.
The implication of the term “student studying abroad” is more profound than its literal meaning, Yan noted. These Chinese people are intelligent and diligent. Many Chinese students have worked hard and finished their studies in other countries, obtaining Master’s and Doctor’s degrees. They have entered local institutions of higher learning, research institutes or various large companies, some even becoming key staff members in government departments. They generally have relatively high incomes and social status, becoming the so-called “new immigrants” who constitute a social group with great development potential.
However, many of them are not simply contented with the comfortable life abroad. Seeing the opportunities produced or to be produced by China’s rapid economic development, its increasingly open environment and its pending entry into the World Trade Organization, they believe their development back in China will heighten their value. On the other hand, nurtured by Chinese culture, the Chinese students abroad normally have a strong sense of patriotism. They are willing to contribute their wisdom and talent to the building of their motherland. It is simply a natural feeling of theirs, said Yan.
Currently, Chinese students abroad have used various ways to start their business. Some returned and established businesses in China, while some, though staying overseas, maintain business, information exchanges and cooperative ties with domestic enterprises. Yan noted that associating with domestic enterprises and entrepreneurs is a good way for returned students to start their undertakings in China because they are highly complementary. Returned students have mastered advanced technology and managerial expertise, have financial knowledge, and are familiar with the overseas business environment, while Chinese enterprises and entrepreneurs have domestic operating experience and have accumulated a certain amount of capital. Their association will result in great productivity featuring advanced technology and products, as well as modern management and a corporate operating mode.
Talent Is More Important Than Projects
This is a conclusion reached by many returned students based on their own overseas experience and the development experience of the countries they studied and lived in.
Dr. Liu Sheng, who won the American President Award in 1995, noted that some local governments in China are keen on foreign projects, and only make large investments if projects are from other countries. As a result, many similar production lines have been built, causing waste. “Foreigners would never be so generous to give away their advanced technology. What China really needs is talent,” Liu said. “China should not only attract its own students residing abroad, but also introduce foreign talent.”
Many returned students share Liu’s view. A senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who studied abroad for many years, said, “When coming back in the early years of New China, Hua Luogeng and other Chinese students brought with them nothing but brains. However, they made great meritorious service to their country. This phenomenon deserves deliberation.”
Returned students, who have successfully established businesses in China, including Ma Wenli, Yang Shuwei and Lu Tanping, have all stressed the importance of a relaxed environment that is conducive to giving full play to the abilities of qualified personnel.
Minister of Science and Technology Zhu Lilan said, “In the long run, the nation’s sustainable development depends on talent, which can never be bought with money.” Vice-Minister of Education Wei Yu pointed out that the more important thing returned students bring back with them is conceptual and operational innovation. “That, at least, is as important as technology,” she said.
Opportunities from WTO Entry
Ma Jianghe acquired a Doctor’s degree of laws in the United States. In 1999, just one month before China and the United States reached an accord on China’s WTO entry, Ma left the law office he had managed painstakingly for many years and returned to China. He became a partner in the Shuang Cheng Law Office in Beijing.
“My purpose for coming back was to be in the race to occupy the domestic legal service market,” Ma said frankly, adding that he has found that the market is much larger than he had imagined.
Dr. Zhang Hanlin, Vice-Chairman of the Research Society for the World Trade Organization, said WTO entry offers a most opportune chance for China to attract Chinese students residing abroad to return home. But labor and personnel departments should make an overall survey of personnel demand for the coming years and work out effective policies for absorption of overseas talent. Otherwise, the opportunity may slip away, Zhang said.
Zhang optimistically believes that China’s pending WTO entry could possibly trigger a back-flow of Chinese “overseas corps.” As WTO accession approaches, China will speed up its economic restructuring, social demand for services will increase, and the manufacturing sector will place higher demands on the quality of its workers. After China joins the WTO, the Chinese economy will merge with the international economy on an increasingly wider scale. The demand for qualified personnel in such sectors as finance, telecommunications, consulting, accounting, law, tourism and high-grade manufacturing will increase on an annual basis. This will undoubtedly provide more opportunities for the development of Chinese students residing abroad, who are familiar with China’s national conditions, have a good knowledge of international conventions and are proficient in both Chinese and foreign languages.
Build China’s Du Pont
Jiang Biao, 38-year-old doctor of chemistry, enjoys a series of titles in the chemical research and production sectors.
In 1992, the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC) sent Jiang to the U.S.-based Du Pont Co. to do postdoctoral research. There, he received systematic training from basic research, applied research, transformation and industrialization of research results to high-tech industrial management. He also participated in the development of anticancer drugs and medicines treating AIDS and cardiovascular diseases, helping put into production some drugs that only had research results and had complicated production techniques. He was highly praised by Du Pont Co. and some of his research results were given American patents, European patents and world patents.
Jiang returned to China in 1994. “I was determined to establish a new research mechanism that closely combines research with actual life and to build up China’s ‘Du Pont’.”
Shortly after he came back, Jiang was promoted to research fellow and tutor of candidates for doctorates. While supervising a dozen or so of his students engaging in major research projects of Shanghai Municipality and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he devoted his efforts to the translation of research achievements.
In May 1996, Jiang, who was SIOC deputy director, took over the institute’s development company together with another director of the institute. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy, having only 10,000 yuan left on its books but 4 million yuan in debts. In a short three years, Jiang’s research group developed 48 new products, 15 of which have been exported in volume. In 1997, the company had an output value of 45 million yuan, 10 million yuan in profits and tax payments, and US$3.4 million in exports. Thereafter, the company has developed rapidly, with its exports reaching tens of millions of yuan.
Vice-Minister of Education Wei Yu said, in the high-tech area, returned students have become an increasingly precious force.
(Beijing Review 02/15/2001)
