Graduates waving Chinese national flags during Columbia University's graduation ceremony in New York. May 16, 2018. Credit: Michael Nagle via Alamy
Chinese academics are departing the United States at an accelerating pace, in a sign of America’s diminishing appeal for some of China’s brightest scientific minds.
That finding comes from a new study by researchers from Princeton University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who conducted a survey of scientists of Chinese origin in the U.S. and examined bibliographical data from academic journals.
Their results show that a pervasive fear has enveloped the Chinese-born scholarly community: almost three-quarters of respondents say they feel unsafe as academic researchers in America. Unease about the U.S. government’s investigations into ethnically Chinese researchers is the number one reason for their insecurity.
That should be cause for alarm for Washington, as it seeks to compete with Beijing for expertise in science and engineering. Ambitious legislation such as the Chips and Science Act, passed in August, has unlocked a wave of go
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