On the Policy of Attracting the Intellectual Resources of the Chinese Diaspora to the PRC

Abstract

The article analyzes the Chinese experience in attracting talented people from abroad. The author focuses on the question of how the foreign specialists' programs enabled the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to attract back mainly Chinese emigrants (华侨 huaqiao) as well as ethnic Chinese who held foreign passports (华人 huaren) rather than foreign nationals. The article offers historical background for the work of the PRC leaders who dealt with foreign Chinese specialists between 1949–1977. It also deals with the regulatory framework of the policy of attracting talented foreigners during the years of reform and opening up (from 1978 until the present). The author concludes: the legal framework, which underlied the policy of attracting talented people from abroad, in the first instance was oriented on huaqiao and huaren as opposed to foreign specialists of similar qualifications. Programs of attracting Chinese graduates of foreign universities to the PRC are also focused on huaqiao.