The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the Report on Global Political and Security in 2007 recently. When analyzing the global migration issue, it says that an increasing number of Chinese people nowadays have moved abroad. Such move has brought both positive and negative effects under the current global political situation. The report points out that China is experiencing the most serious brain drain problem in the world.
Since the 1980s, more and more Chinese students have gone abroad to study and two-thirds of them have settled in the countries after graduation. Since 2002, more than 100,000 Chinese people have gone to study abroad every year. However, only 20,000-30,000 of them have chosen to come back after finishing their study.
Generally speaking, Chinese emigration tide is largely related with the country's macroeconomic development and is the result of the opening-up policy. Overseas Chinese and the emigrants from other countries have made great contribution to the economy of the country where they stay. At the same time, however, the large emigration has led to a huge brain drain of their home country, and for that matter, China has suffered a great loss.
Of all the Chinese that go abroad, many are well-educated people. It is estimated that about 300,000 Chinese people, who originally came from Chinese mainland and majored in a specialized area of study, now settle abroad. Many of these people can be termed as the country's elites. In some departments of Peking University, for example, about 76% of students have moved to the US. In order to cultivate these students, China has contributed great input. These students could have made their contribution to the country in the science, education or research fields. As most of them now settle in another country, China, which has an urgent need for talented people, has paid dearly.
(Chinanews.cn March 27, 2007)