China attracts top scientists, but can it retain them?

Chinese universities are becoming more successful at attracting established scientists from overseas, with recent appointments of Nobel Prize winners highlighting China’s growing appeal as a top research destination.

A growing number of established international academics and scientists have taken up full-time positions at Chinese universities since last year, as shown by publicly announced appointments.

Many of the international recruits work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), particularly chemistry, materials science, engineering and artificial intelligence – fields closely aligned with China's scientific and technological priorities.

But questions remain over whether international academics can be retained and supported for their long-term careers, scholars say.

Nobel laureates attract attention

Among the most prominent recruits are two Nobel laureates who have attracted considerable attention in Chinese academic circles: Omar Yaghi, who won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and German biochemist Hartmut Michel, a co-recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

In July 2026, Yaghi joined Beijing’s Tsinghua University full-time after leaving the University of California, Berkeley. He is to lead the establishment of a university-level AI Chemistry and Materials Research Institute as a chair professor.

Tsinghua said Yaghi had maintained close ties with the university before his appointment. He became an honorary professor in 2022 and participated in academic exchanges and talent development activities.

According to a report by the South China Morning Post, a postdoctoral researcher in Yaghi’s laboratory at Berkeley said the scientist had trained about 200 researchers in the US, nearly half of them Chinese.

Michel also had longstanding connections with Chinese institutions before taking up the full-time professorship at Jilin University’s Bethune First Clinical Medical College in Changchun, north-east China, in April.

He had previously been appointed honorary professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, a leading STEM university in the eastern province of Anhui, in 2016.

“Since the early 1980s, Professor Michel has been enthusiastic in promoting the construction and development of biological research in China, and has visited China for nearly 30 times,” said the university at the time.

Full-time appointments of internationally prominent scientists of this standing have been relatively uncommon in China. The recruitment of Turing Award winner Andrew Chi-Chih Yao by Tsinghua University in 2004 was regarded as a landmark case, with efforts to attract top researchers from overseas largely centred on Chinese scientists returning from abroad.

Professor Han Shuangmiao at Zhejiang University’s College of Education, who researches international academic mobility, said the high-profile cases were significant not only because of the scientists' standing but also because they illustrated how such recruitment is being developed.

“Many of those who are eventually recruited had already established research partnerships with Chinese universities years earlier, often through joint projects, co-supervision or shared facilities,” Han told University World News.

Such relationships may make recruitment more effective by establishing trust and familiarity before a scientist relocates. They can also help new recruits better integrate into their host institutions and remain there over the longer term, she added.

’Evidence of a shift’ in recruitment

Dr Jian Li, associate professor at Beijing Normal University's Institute of International and Comparative Education, sees the appointments as evidence of a genuine, if still early-stage shift.

She said Michel’s professorship was particularly noteworthy. “Michel joined a university in China's northeast rather than in Beijing or Shanghai. This suggests that the capacity to attract world-class talent is spreading beyond the major coastal hubs,” she told University World News.

Jilin University, a public institution located in Changchun, Jilin Province, is currently ranked No.488 on the QS World University Rankings 2027. In recent years, it has strengthened its international research profile: its research output in the Nature Index has more than doubled since 2023, with chemistry among its leading fields.

While institutions viewed accomplished academics mainly as prestigious names to add to faculty lists in the past, it is believed that such perceptions are changing.

“Universities themselves have become more deliberate, treating internationally established scientists as a key component of their strategic development,” said Han.

And as part of this strategy, many are offering substantial financial incentives. Nanjing University in eastern Jiangsu province provides one example. Its Qingtian Plan targets overseas scholars holding tenured professorships or equivalent positions at renowned institutions, whose research is considered to be at a ‘world-class’ level.

The university advertises generous salaries, as well as research start-up funding generally of at least CNY5 million (US$700,000). Additionally, researchers can also receive a range of benefits, including housing subsidies, rights to purchase university-associated housing at preferential prices and access to nearby schools for their children.

The package illustrates the resources some universities are prepared to commit to attracting internationally established academics, although the terms offered to individual recruits may vary.

Since 2025, at least four international scholars have joined Nanjing University full-time. They include French architect François Penz, who previously held a tenured professorship and led the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. He joined Nanjing University's School of Architecture and Urban Planning in March 2026.

Other recruits include British scientist Henry William Joseph Reeve, whose research spans artificial intelligence, computer science and statistics; planetary scientist Alexander Nemchin; and British geographer Clive Sabel, whose work includes spatial epidemiology and environmental health.

Expansion of research investment

The recruitment efforts coincide with China's continued expansion of research investment and infrastructure. In March, as reported by University World News, the central government announced CNY426 billion (US$62 billion) in funding for science and technology development in 2026, an increase of around 10% from the previous year. Funding for basic research was set to rise by 16.3%.

For senior scientists, strong policy and financial incentives may not be the only important driver. Geopolitical developments, funding uncertainty and restrictions elsewhere could also be at play. However, the relative importance of these external pressures, compared with the opportunities offered by Chinese institutions, remains difficult to quantify.

In recent months, the government has signalled its intention to further strengthen the recruitment of foreign expertise. In August, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security called for stronger efforts to attract foreign experts and improve support services.

It also proposed measures including better recognition and rewardmechanisms, and closer
coordination with “immigration arrangements” for high-level STEM talent.

Local governments have also been given greater scope to develop criteria for identifying elite foreign talent according to regional industrial priorities, potentially allowing recruitment policies to be tailored to local development needs.

Prominent policy initiative

The K visa, introduced in October 2025, was another prominent policy initiative. Designed for young foreign science and technology professionals, it differs from existing visa categories by not requiring sponsorship from a domestic employer and by offering flexible multiple-entry arrangements.

However, the practical implementation of the visa has raised questions. As of publication, the K visa was not listed among the available visa categories on the official website of the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre. Its application arrangements still await confirmation from the relevant authorities.

Legal experts have previouslytold University World News that implementing an employer-independent visa category could involve administrative complexities.

The gap between announcing a new visa category and making it readily accessible to applicants may become an important test of the government’s ability to translate policy ambitions into practical recruitment channels.

Returnee scientists are ‘high performing’

Despite the recent high-profile appointments, experts also say that recruiting international academics remains a different challenge from encouraging Chinese researchers working overseas to return home.

China has achieved considerable success in attracting overseas-educated Chinese scientists, who often bring established international research experience alongside language skills, professional networks and familiarity with the domestic academic and cultural environment.

Last month, a new report from Stanford University's Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions that returnee scientists are increasingly “high-performing”: Between 2003 and 2022, top-performing Chinese scientists based in the US became around three percentage points more likely to return to China than their lower-performing peers, though the pattern varied across STEM fields.

Research has also raised questions about how well international academics can integrate into China's higher education system, research by Jian Li and Eryong Xue has found. While valued for their contribution to universities' international competitiveness, they often occupy an ambiguous position within institutional policies.

Han highlights another challenge: under the dual pressure of geopolitics and technological changes, scholars are having to navigate increasingly fragmented identities.

“What was traditionally viewed as a mover’s advantage has become a burden of scrutiny in certain aspects, which may impede the professional growth and intellectual freedom of transnational academics.

This requires critical reflection on the increasing politicalisation of academic mobility and its implications,” she wrote in a commentary for Studies in Higher Education last month.

According to the scholars, successful internationalisation will depend not only on attracting headline-driven laureates, but also on enabling them to build long-term research programmes while remaining connected to global science.

“Retention will ultimately be judged by whether these scientists build lasting teams and train the next generation in China, which will become clearer over the next five to ten years,” said Li.