Geopolitics of Researchers in Science

Notice

As this is a blog which discusses my personal opinions I'm adding this note because the topic being discussed may be sensitive to some as it refers to the ethnic and national origin of peoples. In addition, I point to the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog page with regard to the fact that this is my personal writing.

On LinkedIn there was a post mentioning the PNAS research article "Caught in the crossfires: Fears of Chinese-American Scientist [1] and how it's having a significant impact on scientist and researchers who are chinese nationals or of chinese descent. One thing the paper doesn't clarify in the beginning is how they are delineating between Chinese nationals and Americans of chinese descent. It seems the use "Chinese descent" to cover both and then just refer to "native-born" and "foreign-born". However, I'm not sure this is the best way to differentiate. I think this matters because American citizens can hold dual-citizenship.

I'll provide how I view the distinction in the context of how the U.S. would classify between the two. A chinese national is a person who holds citizenship of the People's Republic of China (i.e., China). I believe Chinese citizenship is granted through your parents, so it doesn't matter if you were born there. Chinese nationals can obtain visas or be permanent residence of the U.S. allowing them to study, work, or domicile in the U.S. and associated territories.

A person of chinese descent in the context of the US would American citizens who's ethnic/national family lineage that can be linked back to China or a ethnic group originating from China. They are Americans! One subtle detail is that American citizens can hold dual citizenship. One thing the paper does not make any distinction about is if when they refer to people of "Chinese descent" is to whether this includes dual citizens.

Okay, so what does this paper report? Well it's a bit saddening in that much of the highly trained talent educated and working in the U.S., for both(?) Chinese nationals and Americans of chinese lineage, feel negatively impacted by US policy against China. Many seem to be seeking opportunities in China to escape unwanted attention and scrutiny simple because of their citizenship or ethnic identity. Just to give you a more visual representation of the sentiment, the authors provide the survey plot below.

Fig. 2 from ref. [1] indicating perception of scholars who are of Chinese descent.

The paper provides some examples of the negative impact U.S. policies and legal cases have had on individuals and the boarder community. As for why the U.S. is pursuing these policies? I don't know nor am I qualified to opine on what harm has been caused by national secret exposures and intellectual property theft by individuals who act on behest of the Chinese government. I can say that US government has reported on very real attempts by the Chinese government to steal IP and technology [2-3]. I'm also not familiar with how data gathering in social sciences is done so its hard to know how complete and representative this paper is.

There is one particular section that concerned me, although already well known, was where the authors provide some percentages on who makes up the PhD recipients in science and engineering. Almost half (46%) of all awarded in 2020 achieved so on temporary visas. Meaning American citizens are barely the majority. Let me first say America is founded on immigration and non-citizens coming to the US in pursuit of opportunity and improvement. This is what made American unique. We need more immigration and interest in the US not less! Especially in areas that the US is lacking in. However, I'm greatly concerned that the US is doing something wrong by not having a more significant proportion of the PhDs granted going to American citizens. We need to both be welcoming and competitive.

There is one other aspect which the paper did not discuss or only mentioned in short, the knock-down effect on other asian ethnic groups. The paper mentions anti-Asian sentiment but doesn't address anything about perspectives from individuals who identify with other Asian groups. Unfortunately, due to conditioning or lack of familiarity, people sometimes presume people of Asian descent to be Chinese when in fact they may be Korean, Japanese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Laotian, or could even be a distinct ethnic group from within China. Because of this, policies or sentiment can also impact them.

Since I have no knowledge of policy making or best approaches it's hard for me to say what should be done. Even if I did have a good idea, the complexity of executing on it would probably make it impossible. For sure there is the need to protect American interest and national security. We also need talent abroad to remain competitive and grow. Futhermore, people domiciled int he US should feel safe and secure. All I can say is I would hope a paper like this in a few years would read:

"Thriving at the Intersection: Chinese-American Scientists Shaping the Future"

References

[1] Xie, Y., Lin, X., Li, J., He, Q., & Huang, J., Caught in the crossfire: Fears of chinese-american scientists. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(27), (2023). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2216248120

[2] Office of public affairs | chinese citizen convicted of economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, and conspiracy | united states department of justice. (2020, June 26). Retrieved June 29, 2023, from https://www.justice.gov

[3] Wray, Christopher, The threat posed by the chinese government and the chinese communist party to the economic and national security of the united states [Speech]. July 7, 2020 Retrieved June 29, 2023, from Federal Bureau of Investigation website: https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/

Reuse and Attribution