[10/28/24] New Books in Asian Studies: The War for Chinese Talent in America

Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies as Dr. David Zweig discusses his new book, The War for Chinese Talent in America. To overcome their “brain drain,” some developing countries employ the “Diaspora Option,” encouraging their overseas nationals to use the knowledge they gained abroad to help their motherland. Since the mid-1990s, China’s party/state has vigorously used an extensive array of programs and incentives to persuade ethnic Chinese living in America to transfer their technological knowhow back home. Many Chinese working abroad facilitated this flow, some to strengthen their former homeland, others from self-interest. In 2018, the Trump Administration declared war on these efforts. Employing a McCarthy-like campaign called the “China Initiative,” the government investigated Chinese scientists across the U.S. Many individuals were arrested, only to have their cases dropped. Still, hundreds had their research disrupted or lost their jobs. The War for Chinese Talent in America documents China’s ‘no-holds-barred’ effort to access U.S. technology and America’s vigorous counterattack and its efforts to disrupt the transfer of U.S. technology to China. Six case studies include stories of unknown victims of that campaign whose cases were never made public. It highlights how the war has undermined Sino-American scientific collaboration and triggered the outflow of some top Chinese talent from America and back to China.

Speaker

David Zweig 崔大偉 is the leading scholar of China’s effort to build its talent pool. He’s researched Chinese studying abroad, programs to encourage them to return to China and the experiences of those who have returned. His books include Agrarian Radicalism in China, 1968-1981 (1989), China’s Brain Drain to the United States (1995), Freeing China’s Farmers: Rural Restructuring in the Reform Era (1997) and Internationalizing China (2002) Zweig has also co-edited New Perspectives on the Cultural Revolution (1991), China’s Reforms and International Political Economy (2007) and Sino-U.S. Energy Triangles (2016). Zweig is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at National Tsinghua University in Taiwan. He is a chair professor emeritus at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where he taught for a quarter century and where he established its Center on China’s Transnational Relations. Prof. Zweig is a member of the USCI board of scholars and has spoken here a number of times (including “CCP and Talent Recruiting,” 2013 and “America Challenges China’s National Talent Programs,” 2020).

Moderator

Bruce Dickson received his B.A. in political science and English literature, his M.A. in Chinese Studies, and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan. He joined the faculty of The George Washington University and the Elliott School in 1993.

Professor Dickson’s research and teaching focus on political dynamics in China, especially the adaptability of the Chinese Communist Party and the regime it governs. In addition to courses on China, he also teaches on comparative politics and authoritarianism.

His current research examines the political consequences of economic reform in China, the Chinese Communist Party’s evolving strategy for survival, and the changing relationship between state and society. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.