Latest news with #ZhejiangUniversity
The Star
9 hours 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
Business Wire
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Wire
Global New Material International: Driving a Green Future Through Innovation
STUTTGART, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As global economic integration accelerates, materials science—the foundation of modern industry—is undergoing a profound transformation. Global New Material International Holdings Limited (GNMI) stands at the forefront of this evolution. GNMI's innovations have gained broad international recognition. With a clear strategy focused on green manufacturing and sustainability, the company offers viable solutions to reduce dependence on non-renewable resources... Share At the recent 2 nd Sino-European Corporate ESG Best Practice Conference, GNMI was honored with the 'Best Practice in Technological Innovation' award for its outstanding commitment to innovation and green development. The judging panel praised the company's achievements, noting that 'GNMI's innovations have gained broad international recognition. With a clear strategy focused on green manufacturing and sustainability, the company offers viable solutions to reduce dependence on non-renewable resources while advancing eco-friendly production.' Technological innovation is central to the company's success. Its core products—pearlescent materials and functional mica fillers—are widely used in cosmetics, plastics, rubber, coatings, and new energy batteries. In response to the limited supply of natural mica, the company has spent years on research and development, overcoming significant technical barriers to create synthetic mica with proprietary intellectual property. GNMI continues to expand the application of these materials, including integrating pearlescent materials into colored BIPV (Building-Integrated Photovoltaic) modules. This innovation advances the intersection of green energy, smart manufacturing, and architectural aesthetics. The company also places emphasis on industry-academia collaboration. It has partnered with Zhejiang University to co-found the 'Zhejiang University–Chesir Pearl Joint R&D Center' to tackle critical challenges in battery performance and safety. Their joint research focuses on insulation and separator materials—key components for the new energy vehicle sector. These collaborations not only enhance the company's innovation capacity but also accelerate the commercialization of academic research, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem. Aligned with global sustainability goals, GNMI remains committed to green manufacturing by implementing energy-saving, waste-reducing, and low-carbon practices across the production chain. Its subsidiary, Guangxi Chesir Pearl Material Co., Ltd., has been designated a 'National Green Factory' by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Furthermore, this factory recently successfully connected a rooftop distributed photovoltaic project to the power grid, reaching a major milestone in its green manufacturing transformation. The project has an installed capacity of 5.9 megawatts peak (MWp) and adopts BIPV technology. Looking ahead, Global New Material International will continue to lead with innovation and sustainability—empowering a colorful, greener world through science and technology.
South China Morning Post
7 days ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
The talent gambit: how the US' brain drain is China's brain gain
This year, Beijing's Tsinghua University is up two spots to be just outside the top 10. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Chinese scientists deliver world's first cloned yak via cesarean section in Tibet
Chinese researchers have successfully delivered a cloned yak via caesarean section (C-section). Born on July 11, the baby yak was bred at a breeding base in Damxung County, southwest Tibet—also known as China's Xizang Autonomous Region. The calf is reported to have weighed 73.9 pounds (33.5 kg) at birth, which is heavier than most yak newborns. Completely black, the calf is in good health and was able to walk with no issues. The birth marks a significant scientific advancement in livestock breeding, particularly in high-altitude environments such as Tibet. Yaks are vital to the local economy and ecology, providing meat, milk, transportation, and fuel (from dung) to communities living on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. The cloning process itself was achieved, the researchers report, using somatic cell cloning. This is a process where the DNA from a body (somatic) cell is inserted into an egg cell with its nucleus removed. The researchers also used whole-genome selection, which is a method that helps identify and propagate animals with desirable genetic traits like size and milk yield. The project was started in 2023 by researchers at Zhejiang University in eastern China who led the scientific work. Other stakeholders included the Damxung County government and the Institute of Plateau Biology in Xizang. The primary objective was to enhance the quality of yak breeds by making them stronger, more productive, and disease-resistant. The agenda was also to help build a modern breeding system suited to the unique conditions of Tibet's high-altitude terrain. Yaks are essential to life on the Tibetan Plateau, where they have been domesticated for thousands of years. Their ability to survive where most livestock cannot makes them critical for food security in the region. They are also essential beasts of burden (aka pack animals) for locals to transport materials across the rugged topography. To this end, they play a vital role in the region's culture and economy, supporting traditional herding lifestyles. Additionally, they contribute to the plateau's ecosystem by grazing sustainably and helping to maintain the balance of grasslands in this unique high-altitude environment. The same somatic cell cloning method used to create 'Dolly' the sheep back in the 1990s. Famously, Dolly was the world's first cloned mammal and was born in 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. To create her, scientists inserted the nucleus from an adult sheep's udder cell into an egg cell devoid of nucleus. Her birth also overturned previous assumptions as it proved that specialized adult cells could be reprogrammed to create an entire organism. Dolly marked an important breakthrough in genetics and biotechnology, sparking global interest in cloning's potential, as well as its ethical implications. She lived a full and healthy life of six years and had normal offspring before her death.
South China Morning Post
01-07-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Are you developing Parkinson's disease? Earwax may show if you are at risk, study says
Chinese researchers investigating Parkinson's disease have made a curious discovery related to earwax that could improve the prospects of prevention and diagnosis. A team based at Zhejiang University in Guangzhou has found that earwax tests could help with the early detection of the debilitating disease, which is difficult to treat and has no cure. Earwax from people with Parkinson's disease were significantly different than the earwax from people without the disease,' according to the American Chemical Society, which published the team's findings. The researchers were following up on previous work showing that Parkinson's sufferers' sebum – an oily substance secreted through the skin – has a different odour than that of people without the disease. Since earwax is largely made up of sebum, the team realised it would make for a potentially telling research target. Earwax is a naturally occurring substance produced in the ear canal to protect and clean the ear. Photo: dpa After screening samples taken from more than 200 people, the team found alterations in four volatile organic compounds – organic chemicals that easily evaporate into the air – in Parkinson's patients' earwax. These changes do not appear in the compounds in the sebum of those who do not have Parkinson's.
