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This week on Sinica, I chat with David Zweig, a veteran China scholar who is Professor Emeritus from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. We discuss Davis’d latest book, The War for Chinese Talent in America, which looks at Chinese efforts to harness the intellectual firepower of Chinese scientists and engineers who studied abroad, especially in the United States, and bring them — or at least their knowledge —back to China. David’s book takes a balanced look at both the very real problems generated by Chinese policies as well as the overreaction by the U.S. Department of Justice in the form of the infamous China Initiative.

3:40 – Why got David interested on this particular topic

7:07 – The diaspora option

12:09 – The Thousand Talents Program/Plan

18:28 – How the talent programs operate

23:48 – Motivations for Chinese to participate in the talent programs, how geopolitics now impacts these decisions, and what the effect of the China Initiative has been on collaboration

36:29 – The China Initiative’s climate of fear and the concern for racial profiling

49:40 – The extent of the validity of U.S. security concerns

57:24 – David’s suggestions for balancing national security interests and open scientific exchange

Paying It Forward: Dan Lynch and his book, China’s Futures: PRC Elites Debate Economics, Politics, and Foreign Policy

Recommendations:

David: It’s a Wonderful World — The Louis Armstrong Musical in New York

Kaiser: The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection by Tamim Ansary, especially the audiobook read by the author

David Zweig, Professor Emeritus of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, discusses the significance of Chinese President Xi’s visit to Hong Kong and the policy priorities for new Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee. He speaks on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia” with Shery Ahn and Haidi Stroud-Watt. (Source: Bloomberg)

Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia

Link: rthk.hk/radio/radio3/
BackChat:
4 June 2021
Hugh Chiverton and Danny Gittings

June 4th under NSL

ABC News Live Prime
January 22, 2021
Interview with David Zweig

Link: rthk.hk/radio/radio3/
BackChat:
12 January 2021
Hugh Chiverton and Ada Wong

Legal year 2021/ US and Taiwan relations

Link: rthk.hk/radio/radio3/
BackChat:
4 December 2020
Hugh Chiverton and Danny Gittings

Sino-Australia relations / Chinese spacecraft landing on the moon

Streamed live from the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 20 July 2020
Panel Speaker: David Zweig

In 2008, China’s Communist Party created the Thousand Talents Program (TTP) to counteract the brain drain trend that had seen many of the country’s best and brightest minds emigrate and settle overseas. According to Li Yuanchao, the reformist former Chinese Communist Party Politiburo member who developed the program, the stated goal of the TTP was to build an “innovative society.” However, in the past few years, the United States government has become growingly alarmed by and hostile towards the TTP, particularly in the technology development domain.

Under the current political atmosphere in Washington, American suspicion regarding China’s aspirations to become a scientific superpower through the TTP is only growing stronger. Cases of Chinese discrimination in universities and within corporations are increasingly institutionalized. Hurdles to cooperation are becoming more commonplace. As neither the United States nor China would benefit from a permanent technological decoupling, what steps should China take to make their national talent programs more open? Likewise, how can America make its investigations into these alleged cases more transparent? Join Asia Society Hong Kong Center as we host Professor Frank H. Wu, President of Queen’s College at City University of New York and author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White and Professor David Zweig, Director of the Center on China’s Transnational Relations at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, to engage in this important dialogue on the need for better ‘rules of the road’ on scientific advancement and cooperation between the US and China.