Research2026-10-06

China made recruiting foreign AI researchers a national priority. It introduced a visa for scientists and offered lucrative research grants. Foreign researchers are still not moving to China. Chinese AI researchers in the US rose rather than fell. For every 30 Chinese AI researchers in the US, only one moved to China. The data comes from a Carnegie Endowment study of NeurIPS papers. The study tracked authors' education and work locations. US-China tensions did not reduce Chinese-origin researchers in the US.

What changed

China had not prioritized recruiting foreign AI researchers at a national level.

  • 30:1 ratio of Chinese AI researchers in US vs China
  • 4 percentage points rise in Chinese-origin researchers in US

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