The New York Times has a fascinating front page article about high profile US based scientists returning to China to continue their academic careers. I was recently in Shanghai and saw a similar trend among social scientists, mostly economists but also some political scientists. The top universities in China are now providing salary and research packages to competitive candidates that are comparable to many U.S. universities.
In many ways, this is more surprising than Chinese efforts to attract scientists. The Chinese government has long been and in many ways continues to be somewhat skeptical towards social science research, especially the way it is conducted in the West. This is more generally true in authoritarian regimes. The NYT article documents the various political barriers scientists face when they return. One could imagine that life would be harder for social scientists. On the other hand, social scientists are less dependent on government supplied resources. Most of the people I spoke to didn’t feel that there was direct interference with their research but they seemed to have a clear sense that there were some broad limits to what they could and could not do. Motivations to return were almost always related to a desire to live, work, and make a difference in their home country, something that seems more possible now than it was 10 or even 5 years ago.
I have a pretty poor understanding of China, not speaking the language(s) or being an expert on the country but the pace of change is pretty remarkable. Consider the following excerpt from the Times article:
At Tsinghua, Dr. Shi says he is optimistic. In less than two years, he has recruited about 18 postdoctoral fellows, almost all from the United States. Each has opened an independent laboratory. Within a decade, he said, Tsinghua’s life sciences department will expand fourfold. Dr. Shi does not pretend that science there is now on a par with Princeton. Rather, he likens Tsinghua to a respected American state university. But “in a matter of years,” he said, “we will get there.”
I would not be surprised if he is right although I suspect that the change will be slower in the social sciences.