Abandoning the US, More Scientists Go to China

David J. BierThe Organisation for Economic Co ‐​operation and Development (OECD)—an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries—has publishednew data showing that the United States is losing the race for scientific talent to China and other countries. China ’s strategy to recruit scientific researchers to work at China‐​affiliated universities is working.In 2021, the United States lost published research scientists to other countries, while China gained more than 2,408 scientific authors. This was a  remarkable turnaround from as recently as 2017 when the United States picked up 4,292 scientists and China picked up just 116. As Figure 1 shows, the rest of the OECD and China have both surpassed the United States for net inflow of scientific authors.The OECD data are not measuring the movement of non ‐​Chinese into China or non‐​Americans into the United States. The OECDtracks inflows and outflows of published scientific researchers based on changes in institutional affiliation. If an author who was previously affiliated with a  different country publishes another article in a new country, the new country will be credited as receiving a new research scientist. The OECDcredits more Chinese scientists returning to China for the sudden reversal in Chinese and American inflows.This is a  disturbing trend that started before the pandemic. In fact, it appears to coincide with the Trump administration’s “China Initiative”—more accurately...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs