Can China Bring Back the Best? The Communist Party Organizes China's Search for Talent

Abstract

For some fortunate developing countries, the international flow of their human talent in the recent decade has been more of a 'reverse brain drain' than the terrible brain drain. South Korea (before it joined the OECD), Taiwan, Hong Kong, and India have all seen a significant 'brain gain.' And while UNESCO still worries that the bleeding of talent to the developed states continues, a better balance has clearly been struck. China, too, joined the group of states whose students, after going abroad to study, now find sufficient opportunity and an acceptable quality of life back home to make returning after graduation a reasonable option. Still, much debate exists over the reasons for this shift. Is it purely that these states' economies have grown, creating new jobs and opportunities for people with talent, capital, ideas and technology, or has the state played a critical role in this important change in national development?

Keywords: China, talent plan, thousand talent, talent strategy