An eminent Chinese professor has warned that an \u201cover-promoted\u201d programme to lure hi-tech talent home is fuelling foreign suspicions about international students\u2019 ties to the Chinese government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wei Yingjie, a cardiovascular health specialist at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said during the annual gathering of the political elite known as the \u201ctwo sessions\u201d that China should also stop sending university outreach groups to US campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Thousand Talents Plan is a high-profile, state-backed recruitment drive set up in 2008 to attract overseas Chinese students and academics \u2013 particularly those in the science and technology field \u2013 with cash grants to fund their research and living costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, US intelligence officials have accused it of \u201c[facilitating] the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how\u201d to China \u2013 a key point of contention in the ongoing trade war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the US did this in China, it would be suspicious \u2013 who would believe that?,\u201d Wei, a delegate to the Chinese People\u2019s Political Consultative Conference, said on the sidelines of a meeting of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wei Yingjie was one of the first academics to be recruited under the Thousand Talents Plan.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn recent years I think we haven\u2019t grasped the scale of the propaganda for the Thousand Talents Plan, it\u2019s been over-promoted,\u201d said Wei, a former Harvard professor who was one of the first recruits for the Thousand Talents Plan back in 2009.SUBSCRIBE TO SCMP TODAY: INTL EDITIONGet updates direct to your inboxSUBMITBy registering for these newsletters you agree to our T&C<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n He continued that the Americans \u201chave retaliated in terms of customs tariffs and job talent, throwing accusations of stealing state secrets or intellectual property at Chinese students for no reason.\u201d 00:23 \/ 00:30SKIP AD<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the \u201cextreme measures\u201d adopted by the US meant China \u201cdoesn\u2019t really bring up TTP much any more\u201d, adding that parts of the programme needed to be improved to protect Chinese students from undue suspicion.China mutes volume on Thousand Talents Plan as US spy concerns rise but scientists still covet funding<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Several Chinese researchers in science and technology have reported delays in processing their US visas, or flat-out rejections as the Trump administration has tightened entry conditions in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wei also said that he knew \u201cover a dozen\u201d Chinese science professors who have decided to leave due to the climate of suspicion they faced in the US, adding: \u201cThey really couldn\u2019t bear it any more.\u201dRecent incidents such as a protest by Chinese students<\/a> against a Uygur activist\u2019s talk about Xinjiang detention camps at Canada\u2019s McMaster University \u2013 apparently in coordination with diplomatic staff \u2013 have further raised suspicions about their ties to the Chinese government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But academics at other institutions said such concerns may be overblown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn my experience almost all Chinese students are deeply patriotic,\u201d said Simon Marginson, professor of education at Oxford University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost Chinese students are in general terms loyal to their government, though individual students are often critical of specific actions of the government. Few of those I have met are blindly loyal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis makes them similar to most other people in the world and no more or less unreasonable than American students, who tend to be patriotic and, mostly, loyal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt does not make them \u2018spies\u2019 or \u2018agents of influence\u2019. Such terminology reeks of prejudice. These are ordinary human beings not alien monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are certainly legitimate criticisms to be made of the international conduct of the Chinese state, especially where it intervenes to reduce the self-determination of non Chinese people. But it is important to conduct such criticism on the basis of objective and universal norms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tang Yezi, 23, a postgraduate student at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, said she felt her foreign classmates had a intrinsic prejudice against the Chinese political system.Duke University tutor steps down after row over \u2018impolite\u2019 Chinese students not speaking English on campus<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne classmate from United States just questioned me on why China set up camps in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some other classmates can\u2019t understand China\u2019s political representative systems, thinking they\u2019re shallow and cannot truly represent the whole society,\u201d said Tang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut generally, if a Westerner visited China even once, their attitude towards China would become [more] moderate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Akito Okada, a professor at Tokyo\u2019s Institute of Foreign Studies who supervises around 20 Chinese postgraduates, said that she had never encountered anti-Chinese prejudice in her field, although she conceded that it may exist in the sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJapan is now facing a rapidly ageing society, if our university does not accept international students it is likely to face closure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am even grateful to China for letting so many international students study in Japan. I will continue to welcome Chinese students in a positive manner in future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An eminent Chinese professor has warned that an \u201cover-promoted\u201d programme to lure hi-tech talent home is fuelling foreign suspicions about international students\u2019 ties to the Chinese government. Wei Yingjie, a cardiovascular health specialist at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said during the annual gathering of the political elite known as the \u201ctwo sessions\u201d that China should also stop sending… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3212,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions\/3212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}