Immigration and U.S. Competition with China

A nation’s competitiveness depends in part on its commitment to research and development (R&D), which requires a highly skilled workforce. While the United States remains the prime destination for global talent, it is facing increasing threats in maintaining its competitive leadership amidst fierce competition from China. The Bipartisan Policy Center has consistently emphasized how an outdated legal immigration system restricts national security and competitiveness. This blog examines China’s strategic efforts to attract global STEM talent, another reason for legal immigration reform if the United States is to maintain global leadership in science and technology.

Intensifying Competition from China

In 2000, America’s gross domestic spending on R&D was $360 billion—almost ten times that of China’s, at just $40 billion. This gap has since dramatically narrowed, with 2021 data showing United States spending at $710 billion and Chinese at $620 billion, proof of China’s focus on bolstering its science and technology expertise.

China has also invested in creating a highly skilled workforce, with its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent pool growing to match and, in some areas, surpass that of the United States In 2019, 1,550,000 bachelor’s students and 326,000 master’s students graduated with STEM degrees in China, significantly higher than the 429,298 bachelor’s and 142,775 master’s STEM graduates in the United States that year. In 2020, 71 Chinese universities ranked among the top 500 globally, a substantial increase from only 23 in 2010. These top-ranked Chinese universities graduated an estimated 26,500 STEM Ph.D.s in 2019, compared to 22,000 STEM Ph.D. graduates from similarly ranked American universities. Projections suggest that, by 2025, China will award nearly 77,000 STEM Ph.D.s annually, nearly double the estimated 40,000 in the United States.

China’s Strategic Immigration Programs and Policies

China’s rising status in science and technology can be linked in large part to its immigration policy. In the last two decades, the Chinese government has launched generous recruitment policies and programs on both national and sub-national levels to attract talent. Part of China’s strategy is government-sponsored, attractive incentives such as signing bonuses ranging from the equivalent of $420,000 to $700,000 to recruit top talent from around the world. Beyond the signing bonuses, China offers support packages that address common relocation hurdles, such as assistance with housing in the form of subsidies to buy homes and mandating that employers must find jobs for the spouses of recruited talent. These initiatives have resulted in the return to China of more than 500,000 Chinese nationals as of 2018, as well as the successful recruitment of over 20,000 talented individuals from abroad.

The table below summarizes several programs and policies the Chinese government has implemented over the past two decades to attract, retain, and incentivize both Chinese and foreign professionals to contribute to its scientific and technological sectors.

China’s Targeted Immigration Programs and Policies for Recruiting Global Talent

Geographic Level	Program	Description
National	Thousand Talents Program	Aims to attract leading Chinese scientists, academics, young talents, foreign scientists, and entrepreneurs living abroad back to China. The program offers a range of benefits, such as prestigious titles and high salaries. Selected individuals receive a one-time bonus of 1 million renminbi (RMB; about $150,000), significant research and academic resources, and assistance with housing and transportation expenses. Awardees’ spouses and minor children who are not Chinese citizens can apply for “Permanent Residence for Aliens” and multiple entry visas valid for two to five years.
	China’s Thousand Young Talents Program	Targets outstanding STEM scholars under 40 and offers generous financial support to each awardee, including a one-off tax-exempt income subsidy of 500,000 RMB (about $69,500) and start-up grants of 1 to 3 million RMB (about $150,000 to $450,000). This package is matched by the host institution and local governments. All awardees are also provided with fringe benefits such as housing subsidies and are prioritized when applying for local and national grants.
	Thousand Foreign Experts Program	Designed to attract top foreign experts to contribute to China’s modernization efforts and promote its aim to become a “talent superpower.” It provides specific benefits comparable to the Thousand Talents Program, including facilitated immigration processing, healthcare, housing, tax incentives, and high salaries. Participants receive a one-time subsidy of 1 million RMB (about $150,000) from the central government. Additionally, employers provide 3-5 million RMB (about $450,000-$750,000) in research funding based on work requirements.
Sub-national	Beijing Overseas Talent Gathering project	Comprises two sets of policies to attract overseas talent to Beijing, including the introduction of a residence or work residence permit (known as the ‘talent green card’), which gives top-tier foreign professionals preferential treatment and aims to facilitate their spouses’ permanent residency, their children’s schooling, and access to medical services.
	Guangzhou Talent Green Card System	Aims to attract top talent from China and abroad to Guangzhou. It offers benefits to aid relocation and living/working in the city, such as streamlined green cards/resident permit processes and pathways to permanent residency in two to five years. It also prioritizes admission to local kindergartens for immigrant children and guarantees enrollment in public, government-funded schools for their children of compulsory school age.
Provincial	Fujian Talent Residence Permit	Aims to attract high-end, overseas-based Chinese professional talent to encourage them to relocate to the province. Holders of the permit are offered privileges in searching for housing, registering a business, obtaining social security, and getting an education for their children.
	Jiangsu Talent Attraction Program	Aims to attract entrepreneurs with the goal of adding 20,000 talented returning Chinese individuals within five years. In addition to providing more than 1 million RMB (about $139,000) in financial support to qualified entrepreneurs, the program established liaison offices in eight developed countries, including Australia, Japan, and the United States, to recruit top Chinese talent to return.

 

The Relative Weaknesses of the U.S. System

China’s efforts to lure back top Chinese talent and attract top foreign talent are extensive. While the United States immigration system has some provisions that prioritize skilled workers, such as specialized employment-based preference categories, the system is restricted by decades-old visa limits and highly complex legal and procedural requirements that make it hugely difficult for individuals to successfully navigate. In stark contrast to China, the United States is not embracing young foreign-born STEM talent, with its challenging path from student visa to temporary work visa to green card, and does not have equivalent state-sponsored financial incentives to attract talent. Ultimately, with no formal immigration quotas set in law, China can permit entry based on their needs and priorities.

The United States has failed to enact legal immigration reform for more than 30 years, instead focusing on upskilling the domestic workforce through legislation such as the 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). While domestic workforce reforms are crucial, the closing STEM talent gap with China outlined above shows that they are not enough to keep the United States leadership in technology, particularly with the slowing growth of our labor force.

Conclusion

Despite China’s extensive efforts to recruit top talent, the United States continues to hold its ground as the top-choice destination for people around the world, but is not leveraging this status to its advantage. BPC has written extensively about the vital need for Congress to enact comprehensive legal immigration reform, including long overdue updates of decades-old visa limits and measures to spread immigration more evenly throughout the country to make the most of regional investments. Given the growing threat China poses, a failure to act risks America’s position as the global leader in science and technological advancements.