March 6th, 2007 by CD
Welcome back to “A lack of talent: Chinese not returning to China.” For part one please click here. As the Chinese economy continues to grow, will they have enough talent to meet the demands of the government. I think so. Here is one Wang Li’s (interview with BBC) opinion on leaving China and the effect that will have on China.
Wang Li
I came back to China in 2005 after 17 years studying and lecturing abroad. My major field is international studies.
From the very beginning, even as a undergraduate student in China, I had realised that China’s future statesmen and scholars must learn the rules of the wold’s politics and economics.
In its recent history, China has suffered at the hands of western powers because of a lack of understanding of the outside 
world.
I went to Harvard equipped with a Masters’ degree from a Chinese university and confidence that I was good. The list of books to read gave me a shock - I hadn’t heard of any of them and I quickly felt out of my depth.
I decided to come back after all these years - I am an old dog who needs a home to settle down. But more importantly, I wanted to pass on the knowledge I gained abroad.
My teaching is far better than colleagues who never left China. I use modern methods and I am open to new ideas. My students at Nankai University read the same books as American and British students.
Coming back after so long does come at a cost: while I’ve been away, the made-in-China professionals have filled nearly all the attractive positions of political and economic power. I am an outsider and I cannot compete with long-established local academics.
I am unlikely to benefit from the money the government provides to universities, for example. In addition, in 2002 the government stopped providing accommodation for returned university lecturers, so I had to rent or buy a place to live.
Young people are leaving, but I don’t think it’s a problem for China in the short term. Let’s be realistic: China is still a developing country and it cannot offer fantastic opportunities to all its young intelligent people.
Those who stay abroad will be China’s windows: to draw more investment, know-how and new ideas that will help China in the years to come.
