China really wants to attract talented scientists Trump just helped

HANGZHOU – China was already scoring wins in its rivalry with the US for scientific talent.

It had drawn some of the world’s best researchers to its campuses, people decorated with Nobel Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants and seemingly every other academic laurel on offer.

Now, the Trump administration’s policies might soon bolster China’s efforts.

Under President Donald Trump, the US is slashing the research funding that helped establish its reputation as the global leader in science and technology. The President is also attacking the country’s premier universities, and trying to limit the enrolment of international students.

Scientists from China are under particular pressure, as US officials have said that they may pose a national security threat by funnelling valuable knowledge to China. Chinese-born scientists have been investigated or even arrested.

Last week, the Trump administration said it would work to “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students in “critical fields”.

As a result, many scholars are looking elsewhere.

And Chinese institutions have been quick to try to capitalise. Universities in Hong Kong and Xi’an said they would offer streamlined admission to transfer students from Harvard University. An ad from a group with links to the Chinese Academy of Sciences welcomed “talents who have been dismissed by the US NIH”, or National Institutes of Health.

“The United States is shooting itself in the foot,” said anatomy expert Zhang Xiaoming, who left the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas in 2024 to lead the medical education programme at Westlake University, a research university in the tech hub of Hangzhou.

“Since I went to the United States more than 30 years ago, so much of its research has been supported by foreigners, including many Chinese,” said Dr Zhang, who emphasised that he was speaking for himself, not his employer. “Without foreigners, at least