Opinion | To reverse its brain drain, China should be more flexible on dual citizenship
- While more Chinese students have returned from overseas in recent years, many of the best and brightest are still staying away
- As Beijing and Washington fight for tech primacy, China is losing talent to the US. Allowing dual citizenship would be an effective way to address the problem
One of netizens’ latest targets is Harvard physics professor Xi Yin, a China-born prodigy who has been quoted as saying he has no plans to return to his native country at present. A US citizen now, Yin is also married to an American woman.
But much of the rest of the world has moved on, with more countries embracing dual citizenship against the backdrop of globalisation. Back in the 1960s, only one-third of countries allowed dual citizenship. Today, 75 per cent do.
Perhaps China should follow suit. It would help reverse the brain drain from the country.
Around the time Deng Xiaoping launched the reform and opening up policy, students were sent abroad to study, in countries including the US, Canada and the UK. This trend did not always pay off. In 2007, China Daily reported that, between 1978 and 2006, 1.06 million Chinese went overseas for studies and more than 70 per cent chose not to return. At that time, China probably suffered the most severe brain drain in the world.
