Reuters: Hong Kong, Singapore, and Washington. Up until 2018, China attempted to hire top scientists with advanced degrees from outside as part of a lavishly funded programme that Washington saw as a threat to American interests and technological dominance.
According to three sources with knowledge of the matter and a Reuters review of more than 500 government documents spanning 2019 to 2023, China quietly revived the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) under a new name and format as part of a larger mission to accelerate its tech proficiency two years after it stopped promoting it amid U.S. investigations of scientists.
The three sources who spoke to Reuters about the revised recruitment campaign said it includes benefits including home purchase subsidies and standard signing bonuses of 3 to 5 million yuan, or $420,000 to $700,000.
At various levels of government, China runs talent programmes that are aimed at a combination of abroad Chinese and international specialists. According to national and local policy documents, online job postings, and a person with firsthand knowledge of the situation who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, Qiming, a programme run by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is the primary replacement for TTP.
President Xi Jinping has emphasised China’s need to attain semiconductor self-reliance in light of U.S. export restrictions, which has sparked a race to recruit tech expertise. The U.S. Commerce Department established regulations in October that, among other things, forbid American citizens and permanent residents from aiding the development and manufacturing of advanced semiconductors in China.
Questions about Qiming received no response from either the ministry or the China State Council Information Office. According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, China has previously stated that its international hiring efforts under the TTP aimed to develop an innovation-driven economy and encourage talent mobility while safeguarding intellectual property rights.
According to two of the people, Qiming, or Enlightenment, recruits from scientific and technological domains that include “sensitive” or “classified” areas, like semiconductors. The sources claimed that this was because it was more sensitive than its predecessor because it does not announce recipients and is not present on websites run by the national government.
In several of the documents, Qiming is mentioned alongside Huoju, also known as Torch, an ongoing project of the Ministry of Science and Technology that aims to establish tech company clusters. An inquiry for comment was not answered by the ministry.
According to two of the sources and another source with knowledge of the situation, Qiming also works in parallel with hiring drives supported by the government carried out by Chinese semiconductor companies as well as municipal and provincial agencies. Reuters was unable to independently identify the implicated companies.
The United States has long accused China of stealing technology and intellectual property, which Beijing has denied as being politically motivated.
When asked about Chinese talent recruitment practises, Dean Boyd, a representative for the U.S. government’s National Counterintelligence and Security Centre, said that foreign adversaries and strategic rivals “understand that acquiring top U.S. and Western talent is often just as good as acquiring the technology itself.”
“Risks to U.S. economic and national security can arise when that recruitment creates inherent conflicts of interest or commitment.”
According to Nick Marro, a China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, it is challenging to stop intellectual property leakage through talent movements since such initiatives “run the risk of turning into ethnically-charged witch hunts.”
According to a report from the China Centre for Information Industry Development and the China Semiconductor Industry Association published in 2021, despite recent growth in China’s chip industry, there will be a shortage of about 200,000 workers this year, including engineers and chip designers.
According to three sources, candidates with top-tier international education are given preference in China’s more recent talent initiatives, which, like the TTP, concentrate on elite-level hiring.
One of them added that scientists educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Stanford University were among those sought after by China. “Most of the applicants selected for Qiming have studied at top U.S. universities and have at least one Ph.D,” the source said. Attempts to reach the universities for comment were unsuccessful.
Reuters looked at government records but was unable to identify how many specialists have been hired through Qiming or related programmes, despite the fact that many have applied.
University researchers who receive funding from the U.S. government to conduct research risk breaking the law if they fail to disclose affiliations with Chinese organisations, share proprietary information without authorization, or violate export regulations, according to U.S. officials, even though talent poaching is legal in the country.
Reuters discovered more than a dozen job postings for Qiming candidates made since 2022 on the Chinese social media sites Zhihu and LinkedIn by individuals claiming to be recruiters.
Chen Biaohua, who identified Beijing Talent Linked Information Technology as his employer in a LinkedIn post from February, requested applications from applicants qualified for Qiming and Huoju.
According to the post, Chen was looking for “young talents” under the age of 40 with a doctorate from a reputable university and international experience. Additionally, he was looking for candidates who have held high positions at prestigious overseas universities or corporations.
In order to assist in the recruitment of 5,000 foreign researchers for Chinese businesses, headhunting company Hangzhou Juqi Technology placed an advertisement on the academic social network ResearchGate in March asking for persons with doctorates from prestigious universities and experience at Fortune 500 organisations.
The advertisement said that this work would benefit Qiming and Huoju, with each researcher able to receive incentives of up to 15 million yuan, or almost $2.1 million. It promised “diamonds, bags, cars, and houses” to anyone who recommended a candidate who was subsequently chosen for the talent programmes.
LinkedIn and Chen declined to respond. No responses were received to inquiries addressed to Hangzhou Juqi Technology, Zhihu, ResearchGate, or Chen’s employer.
The Beijing Institute of Technology’s (BIT) website listed one foreign-trained semiconductor specialist as a 2021 Qiming recipient. Ma Yuanxiao is an associate professor at the School of Integrated Circuits and Electronics at BIT. From 2013 to 2015, he completed his master’s degree at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
They don’t know whether the government’s funding for the programmes could disappear abruptly, one said.
In October 2022, Zhuji, a county-level city in Zhejiang, announced that it had received over 200 applications for talent programmes, primarily from Qiming, but that only eight of the year’s successful candidates had returned to China. A faxed request for comment was not answered by the general office of the Zhuji administration.
According to two persons with knowledge of the situation, some Chinese scientists, particularly those with foreign citizenship or permanent residency, were concerned that participating in China’s government talent programmes may result in missing out on chances abroad or subjecting them to U.S. inquiries.
Some professionals, according to these sources, will be given positions at Chinese semiconductor makers’ international operations.