At least 85 rising and established scientists working in the US have joined Chinese research institutions full-time since the start of last year, with more than half making the move in 2025, according to a CNN tally – a trend experts say is poised to expand as the White House pushes to slash research budgets and steps up scrutiny of foreign talent, while Beijing increases investment in homegrown innovation.

Most are part of a so-called reverse brain drain that is raising questions about the US’ long-term ability to attract and keep top-tier foreign scientists – a singular quality that has underpinned its status as the world’s undisputed leader in tech and science throughout the post-World War II period.

And that could have an impact on the race between Washington and Beijing to dominate future-shaping industries such as AI, quantum computing, semi-conductors, biotech and intelligent military hardware.

The Chinese government has for years looked for ways to attract talented international scientists, including the thousands of Chinese researchers who left the country to pursue advanced degrees in the US and other countries, many of whom went on to become pioneers and leaders in American science and technology.

That mission has only become more critical as the US maintains tight tech controls over China, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping increasingly sees the country’s ability to innovate as the only path to economic security.

Chinese universities see changes in the US as “a gift from Trump” that will help them recruit more and higher-caliber talents, according to Yu Xie, a Princeton University professor of sociology, who spoke to CNN while visiting Chinese universities earlier this year.

“You will see a proliferation of new, strengthened and improved research programs and training programs, in all different areas within China,” Xie said.

One headhunter in eastern China, who focuses on recruiting overseas tech experts for the commercial sector, including the semiconductor industry, told CNN changes in the US could boost applications for a government-backed funding program he specializes in.

Concerns and anxieties are particularly acute for researchers with ties to China, the country that has long sent more science and engineering PhD students to the US than any other.

The Trump administration earlier this year used visas for Chinese students as a trade bargaining chip. In July, lawmakers called to reinstate the China Initiative, a highly controversial US national security program launched during Trump’s first term and later canceled following concern it fueled suspicion and bias against academics of Chinese heritage.

China has welcomed a growing number of academics from the US and around the world in recent years, as the country’s own capabilities and ambitions in the sciences have vaulted higher. And a number of the most recent moves will have been in the works prior to Trump’s return to the White House. But, together, the current shifts in America could amount to a more significant opening for Chinese institutions.

A recent newspaper editorial in Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily showed how Beijing sees that opening, offering China as a “safe harbor” and “platform to excel” for Chinese and Chinese-American scholars subject to the “reckless interference” of “some Western country.”

‘Bending over backwards’

Within China’s universities, much of the response to the moment is taking place behind the scenes, people familiar with the situation tell CNN, as schools discreetly reach out to bring US-based researchers onboard.

Lu Wuyuan, a protein chemist who was a tenured professor at the University of Maryland before moving to Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University in 2020, told CNN there was a “clear surge in the number of job applicants from overseas.”

“I know Chinese universities are bending over backwards to actively take advantage of this opportunity presented to them as a gift from a ‘perceived’ adversary,” Lu said, adding that, already, overseas-educated scientists returning to China was a “robust trend, perhaps an irreversible one.”

Liu Jun, a chair professor of statistics at Tsinghua University in Beijing who decided to return to China for family reasons in 2024 and took on his new position after retiring from Harvard this year, said there was not a “systemic attempt” in light of changes in the US. Rather, individual departments like his own “definitely like to take advantage of these opportunities,” he said, by reaching out to colleagues and using conferences to spread a message that they are building up their departments.

Some recruitment efforts are visible online. A social media post from Wuhan University earlier this year invited “talents from all over the world to apply” for professorships.

An accompanying pay scheme showed how those focused on robotics, AI or network security could earn the most from the school’s dedicated research funds and pledged to match national grant funding of up to 3 million yuan (over $400,000).

Such offers, which can include perks such as priority access to research funding, bonuses, housing stipends and family support, are annually promoted by universities across China and often tie in to the central government’s fund for “outstanding young talent” from overseas.

The Qiming program, for example, looks to inject top-level researchers into China’s commercial tech sector, typically requiring applicants to have doctorates and foreign work experience, according to recruitment posts reviewed by CNN and interviews with two recruiters for the program.

One of those headhunters told CNN that professionals with experience in semiconductors were a key focus in his province Jiangsu, where an already strong chip-making industry is under pressure to innovate after the US clamped down on exports of the critical technology.

“Since the US has been ‘bottlenecking’ us, now everyone (is focused on) the integrated circuit field… (The demand for talent) in integrated circuits knows no regional boundaries – everyone needs it,” according to the headhunter, who said his recruits have typically been from Europe, due to his own personal connections. He asked not to use his name in this article, citing the sensitivity of his work.

In the coming year, focus may also shift to include “artificial intelligence and quantum science, particularly in quantum communication and precision measurement,” he added.

China’s government is also expanding avenues for researchers to come to the country.

The Qiming program held an extra intake round over the summer, exclusively for talent from the US and Europe, according to the Jiangsu headhunter, who called it an “unprecedented” move.

Last month, officials announced they would introduce a new visa category for young science and technology talents, dubbed the “K visa,” effective October 1. In July, the National Natural Science Foundation opened an additional round of applications for a program offering research funding for “outstanding young talent” from overseas, on top of the regular annual intake at the year’s start.

The US government has for years seen Chinese programs to attract talent as a threat, with the FBI describing them as part of an effort to steal foreign technologies to advance Chinese government and military goals. China’s Thousand Talents program – which experts say often resulted in professors taking up part-time or research roles in China rather than relocating – was at least nominally phased out in recent years after participants faced intense scrutiny from the US, including as targets of the China Initiative.

That transformation has been witnessed by Lu, the Fudan University protein chemist, who said that when he decided to continue his graduate studies in the US in 1989, China was “poor, resources-stricken, and scientifically and technologically backward.”

“I would not have had the same opportunities to grow as an academic researcher had I stayed in China at that time, for which I am forever grateful to my adopted country,” he said.

But much has changed in China in the decades since, as the country’s economy grew rapidly and the government ramped up spending on research and development. In 2023, China spent more than $780 billion on research and development, compared with roughly $823 billion from the US, according to the most recent OECD data, measuring gross domestic expenditure. (CNN, but headline rejigged)

• A researcher works at a Chinese Academy of Sciences laboratory in Tianjin. (Sun Fanyue/Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images)