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The Star
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Star
As Trump flip-flops on US academia, China's brightest head back home. Here's why
This year, Beijing's Tsinghua University is up two spots to be just outside the top 10. Peking University and Zhejiang University have also moved up the list, climbing to 25th and 45th respectively. The rankings are the latest list of the Best Global Universities compiled by American media company US News and World Report, which looks at 2,250 top institutions from 105 countries. The assessment focuses exclusively on the overall academic research and reputations of the universities, weighing up 13 factors, from publications to citation impact. This year's results show just how far Chinese universities have come in a few short years. In 2018, Tsinghua University was 50th and Peking University 68th, the only two in the top 100. Now they are among 15 Chinese universities in the top 100, with Tsinghua leading the pack at 11th. It has been a steady rise for Chinese institutions up these kinds of ladders in recent decades, one built on sustained investment in education, students and recruitment of overseas staff. That brain gain is growing in momentum, as the administration of US President Donald Trump flip-flops on visas for international students and cuts research funding, deterring more of China's best and brightest from study and research in the United States. The decline in Chinese students heading to the US has been particularly stark over the past five years. In the 2019-20 academic year, China accounted for the largest group of international students in the United States, with 372,532 crossing the Pacific for further studies. By the 2023-24 school year, that number had fallen to 277,398, a decline of more than a quarter over that period. So much so that India now sends more students to the US than China. Similarly, almost 20,000 scientists of Chinese descent left the US for other countries between 2010 and 2021, according to a study by Princeton University sociologist Yu Xie. The rate jumped after 2018 when the US government launched the 'China Initiative' in what it framed as an effort to uncover 'Chinese economic espionage' threatening US national security. The China Initiative was launched during Trump's first term and reportedly involved US Department of Justice investigations of thousands of scientists suspected of hiding Chinese connections. Most cases were quickly dropped due to lack of evidence, and the programme was scrapped in 2022 under Trump's successor, Joe Biden. However, the academic chill between China and the US is still apparent at the institutional level. In January, the University of Michigan ended a two-decade partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University over what it said were national security risks. The University of California, Berkeley, recently announced it was decoupling from the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute after the US government began investigating millions of undisclosed dollars given to the institute by the Chinese government. And in September 2024, the Georgia Institute of Technology announced the end of its participation at the China-based Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, also due to national security concerns. The effect could be lasting. While the most popular American universities – Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford – continue to dominate the top spots in the US News university rankings, 'visa challenges and government scrutiny could deter talented Chinese students and researchers from choosing to study in the US in the future', according to Rick Carew, adjunct professor of finance and economics at Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business in New York. 'China-born scholars contribute immensely to academic research in the US. The heightened US-China political tensions have made them a target for scrutiny,' Carew said. 'Generous funding and the opportunity to teach the next generation of top Chinese students in their native language have made offers to return to Chinese universities attractive for some top scholars more interested in conducting research than geopolitics.' One of the major pull factors for returning to China – the increase in funding – stems from Beijing's efforts to ramp up domestic innovation and development. China is seeking to move up the industrial value chain and is counting on investment in high technology to help get it there. At the National Science and Technology Conference in the capital last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping set a 2035 goal to develop the country's science and technology sectors into world-leading research hubs. That involves a bigger emphasis on research. According to a report released in March by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, China spent more than US$780 billion on research and development in 2023, reaching 96 per cent of US R&D spending, measured in terms of gross domestic expenditure. That compared with just 72 per cent 10 years earlier. In 2017, China surpassed the US in terms of research output, and since then has generated an increasing number of cited publications, a sign that Chinese research is attracting more attention from the international research community, according to the Springer Nature 2024 China Impact Report. Xiong Bingqi, dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, said conditions for researchers had improved over the past five years, with incentives such as higher salaries, better research funding, and benefits like housing subsidies and healthcare. 'The good scientific research environment has attracted a large number of foreign academic talent to teach in China, and the talent attraction policies are also quite helpful,' Xiong said. Zhejiang University, a cradle of tech start-ups in China, has been on the receiving end of some of the research funding and has attracted notable scientists from the US. That reputation was burnished this year when university engineering graduate Liang Wenfeng made the world sit up with his AI start-up DeepSeek and its cost-effective, open-source and competitive approach to large language models. Notably, many of the people at DeepSeek were young and educated wholly in China. In an interview with The China Academy, an academic networking hub, Liang said his hiring practice was to pick and nourish fresh young graduates from the very top Chinese universities but with little to no work experience. Apart from DeepSeek, Zhejiang University graduates have been at the forefront of other innovative tech start-ups such as Deep Robotics, known for specialising in robot dogs and pioneering autonomous inspections of electrical substations and dangerous high-voltage environments. Both companies are part of the 'Six Little Dragons', the Hangzhou-based tech firms whose successes have come to embody China's tech aspirations. 'China produces an estimated 1.4 million engineering graduates each year, providing fresh talent to technology firms like Huawei and BYD competing with Silicon Valley,' Carew said. 'Chinese tech innovation has benefited from a combination of engineering talent, China's advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Zhejiang and Shenzhen, and government policies supporting investment in hard tech industries.' In addition, US controls on technology exports to China, such as a ban on sales of some advanced chips, introduced in 2022 were supposed to help secure technological leadership, but they ended up costing US companies billions of dollars in market capitalisation while boosting Chinese domestic innovation and self-reliance, according to a 2024 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But this has not always been the case. China-US relations, arguably one of the world's most important sets of bilateral ties, boast decades of strategic academic cooperation and competition. In 1979, the two countries signed the US-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement. That agreement was renewed late last year after much delay and some changes but the extension signalled a continued willingness to cooperate. And in May, Beijing's Tsinghua University opened four new residential colleges aimed at developing talent in science, engineering and AI, with one of them designed specifically for international students. The colleges were part of a global strategy launched in 2021 to boost worldwide competitiveness. 'Promoting internationalisation is an important part of efforts by Chinese universities to enhance their competitiveness,' Xiong said. Attracting American students to China is one of Xi's goals. In late 2023, Xi said China was ready to invite 50,000 young Americans to China on exchange and study programmes in the next five years to increase exchanges between the two peoples, especially between the youth. The number of American students studying in China is a shadow of just a decade ago. In the 2023-24 academic year, 800 US students were enrolled in Chinese universities, according to a 2024 American Chamber of Commerce in China report. Enrolments peaked in 2011, when around 15,000 Americans studied in China. The drastic decline was attributed mostly to three years of the zero-Covid policy and ongoing bilateral tensions. Just before the pandemic, 11,000 American students had been studying in China, according to the report. Improving those numbers would not just benefit international relations. Xiong, from 21st Century Education, said that maintaining a global education push was 'a strategic step in building a strong country'. 'The tensions will have a severe impact on Chinese universities to achieve joint international cooperation in scientific research and talent cultivation,' Xiong said. And university rankings may not be the best way of measuring that success. Xiong said that rating systems could have a negative influence on university operations, leading to more pressure for quantity over quality and more frequent cases of fraudulent research papers. 'Ranking universities by using indicators such as the number of papers published and the number of citations is a simplistic and quantitative approach, but the spiritual qualities and traditions of a university cannot be quantified,' Xiong said. 'Talent development is the key to competitiveness. We cannot have first-class scientific research without first-class talent.' -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
The Hill
6 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
China has the US over a barrel in the rare earths market — Trump is fighting back
While the media focus obsessively on the future of Fed Chairman Jay Powell, they all but ignore a major breakthrough engineered by the Trump administration that will ultimately reset our relations with China and free the U.S. from Beijing's blackmail. The Biden presidency was pockmarked by sporadic kowtowing to China, as when he allowed a spy balloon to sail unimpeded over U.S. military installations; dismantled President Trump's 'China Initiative,' meant to counter Beijing's espionage and intellectual property theft in U.S.; and failed to impose secondary sanctions on the country most enabling Russia's war against Ukraine. Why was Biden's White House so timid? Some speculated that the Biden family was worried China might reveal unsavory secrets about their business activities in the country. Perhaps, but they also knew that Beijing held U.S. national security in a death grip. At any moment, the Chinese Communist Party could withhold critical rare earths from our defense and electronics industries. Without the essential magnets produced by those elements, U.S. production of missile guidance systems, semiconductors and more pedestrian products like MRI scanners, cellphones and Teslas grinds to a halt. Fast-forward to Trump moving to punish China for its illegal trade practices and President Xi Jinping playing his get-out-of-jail-free card, countering Trump's damaging tariffs by blocking exports of seven medium and heavy rare earth elements. The move caused the U.S. to stand down, but it also alerted the nation once again that Beijing's smart and dogged effort to corner the world's supply of rare earths has given China a potent weapon. It isn't the first time China has used its dominance of rare earths strategically. In 2010, China retaliated against Japan in a fishing dispute by cutting off rare earths. Trump is, appropriately, moving to free the U.S. from this dangerous noose. It is not the actual minerals that are in short supply; rare earths are everywhere, including in the U.S., though often found in small quantities that makes extraction costly. China, on the other hand, accounts for 60-70 percent of global rare earth production, and more than 90 percent of heavy rare earths. It has achieved that dominance by its usual practice of flooding the market, undercutting rival mining outfits on price and driving competitors out of business. China has also staked out a commanding position in rare-earths refining. China accounts for 85-90 percent of rare earths processing, earned the old-fashioned way — by sacrificing its environment. The sifting out of particular elements from mined ore is nasty work, resulting in considerable toxic waste. China, never afraid of despoiling its lakes and rivers, chose to place strategic goals ahead of pollution concerns. Most western nations, including the U.S., would not make such a choice. Keith Bradsher, Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, recently described the environmental desecration of lands and lakes surrounding processing facilities in China where 'toxic sludge from rare earth processing has been dumped into a four-square-mile artificial lake' and 'rare earth mines have poisoned dozens of once-green valleys and left hillsides stripped to barren red clay.' Not only have the mining and processing efforts sickened local populations, they have contaminated water sources and poisoned livestock. According to Bradsher, public outcry has inspired some clean-up efforts, but protests also resulted in harsh censorship. Mention of some of the worst environmental problems caused by the industry is nowhere to be found. China paid a high price to capture leadership in rare earths mining and processing, but in the April trade battle, that dominance paid off. Faced with the possibility of industrial mayhem, Trump backed off his most aggressive tariff threats. But then he also set out to solve this problem. One upshot is an unusual deal in which the Department of Defense will invest $400 million in a once-defunct mining company now called MP Materials in return for a 15 percent equity stake. In addition to the capital infusion, the Trump government is committing to buy MP's output for the next 10 years at double today's prevailing price. According to the Financial Times, Mountain Pass, the predecessor firm to MP Materials, was 'the world's largest producer of rare earths in the 1970s and 80s.' China's aggressive tactics drove prices lower and shut down its operation in 2002, but our government's price supports should counter Beijing's tactics. MP is not the only company scrambling to claw back America's participation in rare earth mining. Ramaco Resources recently opened a new coal mine in Wyoming, the first new U.S. mine in 70 years. The CEO claims the company will, in addition to coal, produce over 10 percent of U.S. demand for six of the 17 minerals that constitute 'rare earths.' Ramaco claims its reserves of some 'heavy earths' are sufficient to supply U.S. demand for more than 100 years. These measures, even backed by a supportive government, are still inadequate. These mines will still rely heavily on China to process their ore. That stranglehold must also be broken. Several projects are underway to do just that. MP has over the past year built out refining and separation plants that have apparently cracked the code on environmentally acceptable production, but output remains small — less than 1 percent of China's total. MP's prospects received some validation in recent days, when Apple agreed to buy $500 million of 'American-made' rare earth magnets from MP over the next four years. Other companies, like Lynas USA, have entered the race, but they, too, remain small. The U.S. and other countries will have to replicate China's processing capabilities to dismantle one of Beijing's most powerful strategic weapons. That will require an all-out effort to provide cleaner processing techniques and possibly price supports. Some have suggested, in addition, stockpiling a strategic reserve, as we have done with petroleum. That seems smart — like oil, rare earths are critical to our economy. The Trump White House has made a good start, but the hard work has just begun. Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim and Company.
Chicago Tribune
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Northwestern sued over suicide of professor targeted in China investigation
The estate of a Northwestern University professor, who died by suicide last year after being investigated in a controversial federal probe, is suing the school for allegedly discriminating against her and evicting her from her lab — blaming the university, in part, for her death. Jane Wu was a tenured faculty member in neurology, molecular biology and genetics at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine for nearly two decades. She was among hundreds of Chinese American scientists targeted by the Justice Department's China Initiative, a Trump-era program seeking to counter theft of American intellectual property and research. Though Wu was never charged, Northwestern reassigned her grant funding, closed her lab and forcibly admitted her to the university's psychiatric hospital, according to a civil complaint filed June 23 in Cook County Circuit Court. The executor of Wu's estate is her daughter. The university's actions were a 'substantial and decisive factor in her decision to end her life,' the complaint stated. 'Anyone who reads the facts of this complaint will recognize that a great injustice was done to Jane Wu,' attorney Thomas Geoghegan said. A spokesperson for Northwestern said the university does not comment on pending litigation. The China Initiative was scrapped in 2022 under the Biden administration. Though more than 200 Chinese American researchers were investigated, only about 20% were charged and subsequently convicted. Critics said the program fueled a narrative of bias and created a chilling effect among the academic community. After Wu was identified in the probe, she was placed under an administrative investigation by the National Institutes of Health. Though she was a longtime professor, her grants were reassigned to her white male colleagues and her research team was dissolved, according to the filing. 'NU did nothing to support her nor help lift the racial stigma placed over Dr. Wu despite her obvious innocence and the enormous funding her work had brought to NU,' the complaint said. Even when the NIH's investigation concluded in December 2023, Wu's grants were not returned to her, according to the lawsuit. Her lab was completely shut down by May 2024, preventing her from applying for new NIH funding. Because Wu's research was listed as inactive, Northwestern reduced her salary. Feeling increasingly isolated, Wu began to spiral into a deep depression and show signs of obsessive behavior, the filing said. 'NU destroyed not only Dr. Wu's chances at NIH funding but also her research career,' the complaint said. That same month, university and Chicago police removed Wu from her office in handcuffs. She was then admitted against her will to the psychiatric unit of Northwestern Memorial Hospital 'as a means to end her active research and employment,' according to the lawsuit. Wu died by suicide weeks later, on July 10, 2024, 'with her career, her professional reputation, and her sense of personal safety shattered.' She was 60 years old. The complaint did not specify what damages the estate seeks. The filing said Wu became a naturalized citizen in 2000, and had spent nearly 40 years in the United States. She had won continuous NIH funding since 1996. Her work investigated the molecular biology of mRNA and neurodegeneration, seeking to fight diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS. Margaret Flanagan, now an associate professor at University of Texas Health San Antonio, worked beside Wu for more than three years at the Feinberg School of Medicine. But she was more than a colleague, Flanagan said — she was a mentor and friend, with a deep passion for science and unwavering generosity. 'Her legacy is one of strength, compassion, and a relentless commitment to advancing science,' Flanagan wrote in a statement to the Tribune. Wu was intense and thoughtful, Flanagan said, and her astute advice has stuck with her colleague years later. She often reminded Flanagan to 'focus on (her) science.' Wu always centered her work around a larger mission of advancing knowledge and helping patients, Flanagan said. The pair largely fell out of touch when Flanagan left Northwestern in 2023. 'I assumed there would be time in the future to reconnect, not knowing how short that time would be,' Flanagan wrote. Andrea Chu, the Midwest organizing director for Asian American Advancing Justice Chicago, said that Wu's death shows the 'devastating' impact of the China Initiative. She pointed to the lack of cases brought by the Justice Department as an indication that the program was racially biased. A 2021 investigation from the MIT Technology Review found that 148 individuals were charged, but just 40 of them had pleaded or been found guilty. Only 19 cases included violations of the Economic Espionage Act, the intended focus of the initiative. 'The toll that it took on the scientists themselves, their colleagues and also their families is innumerable,' Chu said. 'This was a great source of fear.'
Reuters
02-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
China's Huawei must face US criminal charges, judge rules
NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday rejected Huawei Technologies' bid to dismiss most of a federal indictment accusing the Chinese telecommunications company of trying to steal technology secrets from U.S. rivals, and misleading banks about its work in Iran. In a 52-page decision, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn found sufficient allegations in the 16-count indictment that Huawei engaged in racketeering to expand its brand, stole trade secrets from six companies, and committed bank fraud. The Iran accusations stemmed from Huawei's alleged control of Skycom, a Hong Kong company that did business in that country. Donnelly said prosecutors satisfactorily alleged Skycom "operated as Huawei's Iranian subsidiary and ultimately stood to benefit, in a roundabout way," from more than $100 million of money transfers through the U.S. financial system. Huawei has pleaded not guilty and had sought to dismiss 13 of the 16 counts, calling itself "a prosecutorial target in search of a crime." A trial is scheduled for May 4, 2026, and could last several months. Neither Huawei nor its lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Interim U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella in Brooklyn declined to comment. The criminal case began during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in 2018, the same year the Department of Justice launched its China Initiative to address Beijing's alleged theft of intellectual property. Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, whose father founded the company, had been a defendant, and was detained in Canada for nearly three years before being allowed to return to China. Charges against her were dismissed in 2022. In 2022, President Joe Biden's administration scrapped the China Initiative, after critics said it amounted to racial profiling and caused fear that chilled scientific research. Based in Shenzhen, Huawei operates in more than 170 countries and has about 208,000 employees. The U.S. government has restricted Huawei's access to American technology since 2019, citing national security concerns. Huawei denies it is a threat. The case is U.S. v. Huawei Technologies Co et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 18-cr-00457.
Malay Mail
02-07-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
Huawei must stand trial in US on tech theft, Iran charges, judge rules
NEW YORK, July 2 — A US judge on Tuesday rejected Huawei Technologies' bid to dismiss most of a federal indictment accusing the Chinese telecommunications company of trying to steal technology secrets from US rivals, and misleading banks about its work in Iran. In a 52-page decision, US District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn found sufficient allegations in the 16-count indictment that Huawei engaged in racketeering to expand its brand, stole trade secrets from six companies, and committed bank fraud. The Iran accusations stemmed from Huawei's alleged control of Skycom, a Hong Kong company that did business in that country. Donnelly said prosecutors satisfactorily alleged Skycom 'operated as Huawei's Iranian subsidiary and ultimately stood to benefit, in a roundabout way,' from more than US$100 million (RM420 million) of money transfers through the US financial system. Huawei has pleaded not guilty and had sought to dismiss 13 of the 16 counts, calling itself 'a prosecutorial target in search of a crime.' A trial is scheduled for May 4, 2026, and could last several months. Neither Huawei nor its lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Interim US Attorney Joseph Nocella in Brooklyn declined to comment. The criminal case began during US President Donald Trump's first term in 2018, the same year the Department of Justice launched its China Initiative to address Beijing's alleged theft of intellectual property. Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, whose father founded the company, had been a defendant, and was detained in Canada for nearly three years before being allowed to return to China. Charges against her were dismissed in 2022. In 2022, President Joe Biden's administration scrapped the China Initiative, after critics said it amounted to racial profiling and caused fear that chilled scientific research. Based in Shenzhen, Huawei operates in more than 170 countries and has about 208,000 employees. The US government has restricted Huawei's access to American technology since 2019, citing national security concerns. Huawei denies it is a threat. The case is US v. Huawei Technologies Co et al, US District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 18-cr-00457. — Reuters
