Wednesday, November 12, 2003
The Return of the Natives
The Economist is carrying a story on the return of overseas Chinese to the mainland to become entrepreneurs or players in the world's fastest growing economy.
In a country where less than 1% of the people are enrolled in higher education, 90% of returning Chinese hold a master's degree or a doctorate from abroad. “China has the hardware, but not the software. China needs knowledge. China's biggest challenge is human resources,” says Henry Wang, a businessman and a Canadian-educated professor who is also a senior member of the Western Returned Scholars Association (whose 90th anniversary Mr Hu was celebrating).
While some of that “software” goes into academia and government, most returnees go into business—either joining the staff of foreign multinationals or state-owned enterprises, or setting up their own business. In Beijing alone, there are now 3,300 enterprises started by returners, including some of the country's largest private companies, such as UTStarcom, a maker of telecoms-networking equipment, and Sohu, an internet portal. It is not hard to see why the numbers returning are increasing so fast. China's 7-8% annual growth and steady march towards capitalism has helped it to rival America as one of the best places to seek success and wealth.
The perks and a shot at becoming wealthy are not the whole story. Cultural and family ties are a draw, along with a desire to give something back to the motherland. Sometimes this is combined with a suspicion that they may have hit a glass ceiling in their adopted country. “I was already on top of American society for immigrants,” says Mr Yang. “I could have played lots of golf if I had stayed in America. But I wanted to use my technology to offer China something important.”
This pattern of return resembles the return of the Taiwanese diaspora to kickstart the local economy. This recycling of brains across economies runs counter to the conventional logic of brain drain. And I believe the better the economy performs, the more Chinese that will return. In fact, this is probably truer for Indians who have the added bonus of a functioning democracy to return to.
In a country where less than 1% of the people are enrolled in higher education, 90% of returning Chinese hold a master's degree or a doctorate from abroad. “China has the hardware, but not the software. China needs knowledge. China's biggest challenge is human resources,” says Henry Wang, a businessman and a Canadian-educated professor who is also a senior member of the Western Returned Scholars Association (whose 90th anniversary Mr Hu was celebrating).
While some of that “software” goes into academia and government, most returnees go into business—either joining the staff of foreign multinationals or state-owned enterprises, or setting up their own business. In Beijing alone, there are now 3,300 enterprises started by returners, including some of the country's largest private companies, such as UTStarcom, a maker of telecoms-networking equipment, and Sohu, an internet portal. It is not hard to see why the numbers returning are increasing so fast. China's 7-8% annual growth and steady march towards capitalism has helped it to rival America as one of the best places to seek success and wealth.
The perks and a shot at becoming wealthy are not the whole story. Cultural and family ties are a draw, along with a desire to give something back to the motherland. Sometimes this is combined with a suspicion that they may have hit a glass ceiling in their adopted country. “I was already on top of American society for immigrants,” says Mr Yang. “I could have played lots of golf if I had stayed in America. But I wanted to use my technology to offer China something important.”
This pattern of return resembles the return of the Taiwanese diaspora to kickstart the local economy. This recycling of brains across economies runs counter to the conventional logic of brain drain. And I believe the better the economy performs, the more Chinese that will return. In fact, this is probably truer for Indians who have the added bonus of a functioning democracy to return to.
