Thousand Talents Program (China)

Seal of the Thousand Talents Plan

The Thousand Talents Plan (千人计划) or Thousand Talents Program was established in 2008 by the central government of China to recognize and recruit leading international experts in scientific research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.[1] The program was further elevated in 2010 to become the top-level award given through China’s National Talent Development Plan, a plan that was conceived jointly by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 2010 to strengthen innovation and international competitiveness within China.[2][3]

1000 Talent Plan professorship is the highest academic honor awarded by the State Council, analogous to the top-level award given by the Ministry of Education (People's Republic of China).[1] The program includes two mechanisms: resources for permanent recruitment into Chinese academia, and resources for short-term appointments that typically target international experts who have full-time employment at a leading international university or research laboratory.[1]

The program has three categories:

  • Innovative 1000 Talent plan ( Long term / Short term ) - for chinese scholars below 55 years of age
  • Foreign 1000 Talent plan (Long term / Short term ) - for foreigners only below 55 years of age
  • Young scholar 1000 Talent plan - for those below 40 years of age

The program has been praised for recruiting top international talent to China,[1] but also criticized for being ineffective at retaining the talent.[2] An unclassified U.S. National Intelligence Council analysis highlights that the program threatens the U.S.'s economic base by enabling technology transfer to China.[4]

Background

The best Chinese students often go abroad for advanced studies, resulting in many highly educated overseas Chinese (rencai), the vast majority of whom decide to remain abroad after their studies.[2] To reverse this and to build the size and prestige of China's university system, the central government of China recognized a need to attract overseas Chinese and top foreign-born talent from the world's best universities.[1][5]

Selection

The Thousand Talents program primarily targets Chinese citizens who were educated in elite programs overseas and who have been successful as entrepreneurs, professionals, and researchers.[1] The program also recognizes a small number of elite foreign-born experts with skills that are critical to China's international competitiveness in science and innovation.[1] International experts in the latter category are typically winners of major prizes such as the Nobel Prize and the Fields Medal, and are expected first to have made internationally renowned contributions to a field of technological importance to China, and secondly to hold either a tenured position at one of the world's top universities or a senior role in an internationally important research organization.[6]

In 2013, the Junior Thousand Talent Plan was created to attract faculty members under the age of 40 who have performed high impact research at one of the world's top universities.[6] Although these professorships can be affiliated with any university in China, they are awarded disproportionately to individuals affiliated with the most prestigious (C9 League) universities; the few individuals who receive both this and the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholar award are typically associated with the C9 League.[7]

Winners

Winners include professors from these universities:

  • Jinan University China for 2018 includes Prof. Feng Shuaizhang, Prof. Zhang Yaohui and Prof. Liu Tao[8]
  • China University of Geosciences Beijing includes Prof. Santosh[9]
  • University of Electronic Science and Technology of China includes Prof. Keith M. Kendrick[10]
  • Tianjin University includes Nobel Prize Winner Prof. J. Fraser Stoddart[11]
  • Soochow University, includes Prof. Mario Lanza[12]
  • NYU Shanghai includes Prof. Tim Byrnes[13]
  • Fudan University includes Prof. Martin de Jong[14]
  • Southern University of Science & Technology includes young talents like Prof. He Jiaqing and Prof. Wu Changfeng [15]
  • Chendu Development Center for Science & Technology includes Prof. Aart Kleijn[16]
  • Institute of Chemistry, Beijing includes Prof. Qiqiang Wang[17]
  • Zhejiang University includes Prof. Hao Bai [18]
  • Beijing Forestry University includes Prof. Qiang Wang[19]
  • Beijing Jiaotong University includes Prof. Jin Ho Kwak and Prof. Yukio Tamura
  • Nankai University includes Prof. Abdul Ghani Razaqpur
  • Wuhan Textile University includes Prof. Alexey Guryev
  • Xian Jiaotong University includes Prof. Dieter H Hoffmann[20]
  • Nanjing University includes Prof. Bernd Wunnemann [21]

Benefits

The program confers the prestigious title of "Thousand Talents Plan Distinguished Professor" (千人计划特聘教授) or "Junior Thousand Talents Plan Professor" upon the selected individuals, and provides benefits including this prestigious title, high pay, and visa privileges.[6] The program is the first ever to enable individuals of extraordinary ability to gain access to Chinese immigration visas.[22] The program provides a one-time bonus of 1 million RMB to select individuals, substantial resources for research and academic exchange, and assistance with housing and transportation costs.[6] Thousand Talents scholars are eligible for high levels of government funding.[1]

Criticism

Although the program has successfully attracted top international talent to China, its efficacy in retaining these talented individuals has been questioned, with many of the most talented scientists willing to spend short periods in China but unwilling to abandon their tenured positions at major Western universities.[2] Additionally, some Thousand Talents Plan Professors have reported fraud in the program including misappropriated grant funding, poor accommodations, and violations of research ethics.[23] Individuals who receive either of China's two top academic awards, the Thousand Talents Professorship and the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholar award, have become targets for recruitment by China's wealthiest universities so frequently that the Ministry of Education issued notices in both 2013 and 2017 discouraging Chinese universities from recruiting away top talent from one another.[24][25]

The success of the program in recruiting U.S.-trained scientists back to China has been viewed with concern from the U.S., with a June 2018 report from the National Intelligence Council declaring an underlying motivation of the program to be “to facilitate the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how” to China.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Jia, Hepeng (18 Jan 2018). "China's plan to recruit talented researchers". Nature. 553 (7688): S8. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-00538-z.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Sharma, Yojana (28 May 2013). "China's Effort To Recruit Top Academic Talent Faces Hurdles". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  3. ↑ Wang, Huiyao (23 Nov 2010). "China's National Talent Plan: Key Measures and Objectives". The Brookings Institute. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 Capaccio, Anthony (21 June 2018). "U.S. Faces 'Unprecedented Threat' From China on Tech Takeover". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  5. ↑ Robbins, Mark. "The Thousand Talents Program". The Conference Board of Canada.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "The 1000 Talents Program". Recruitment Program of Global Experts. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  7. ↑ Li F, Miao Y, Yang C (2015). "How do alumni faculty behave in research collaboration? An analysis of Chang Jiang Scholars in China". Research Policy. 44: 438–450. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2014.09.002.
  8. ↑ https://english.jnu.edu.cn/9e/f9/c2027a171769/page.htm
  9. ↑ https://www.journals.elsevier.com/gondwana-research/news/prof-m-santosh-awarded-in-chinas-1000-talent-award-program
  10. ↑ https://www.access4.eu/China/1024.php
  11. ↑ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/edu/2017-09/26/content_32514919.htm
  12. ↑ https://lanzalab.com/professor-lanza-receives-the-young-1000-talent-award/
  13. ↑ http://nyu.timbyrnes.net/2016/07/26/prof-tim-byrnes-is-selected-in-the-thousand-talents-plan-by-the-organization-department-of-china/
  14. ↑ https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2015/tbm/prof-martin-de-jong-appointed-1000-talent-scholar-at-fudan-university/
  15. ↑ http://www.sustc.edu.cn/en/faculty_13
  16. ↑ https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/aart-kleijn#tab-1
  17. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Qiqiang_Wang
  18. ↑ http://sklpre.zju.edu.cn/english/redir.php?catalog_id=12374&object_id=110109
  19. ↑ https://qiangwang-bjfu.weebly.com/professor.html
  20. ↑ http://en.xjtu.edu.cn/info/1044/2192.htm
  21. ↑ http://www.daad.org.cn/aktuelles-china/prof-bernd-wuennemann
  22. ↑ Hvistendahl, Mara (27 Jan 2015). "China dangles green cards to entice foreign science talent". Science. doi:10.1126/science.aaa6406.
  23. ↑ Hvistendahl, Mara (24 Oct 2014). "Show me the money". Science. 346 (6208): 411–415. doi:10.1126/science.346.6208.411.
  24. ↑ Jia, Hepeng (28 Jun 2017). "China sets ground rules for local talent quest". Nature Index. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  25. ↑ Chinese Ministry of Education (25 Jan 2017). "The Office of the Ministry of Education Insists on Correct Guidance in Promoting the Reasonable and Orderly Flow of High-level Talents in Colleges and Universities (教育部办公厅关于坚持正确导向促进高校高层次人才合理有序流动的通知)". Chinese Ministry of Education. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
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