It's ridiculous that returning Chinese who hold doctorates but have no practical experience are given preferential treatment and promotions over domestic talent, complains Wang Jianning, president of the Shanghai Academy of Sciences and a deputy to the National People’s Congress, telling The Paper that "while overseas talent is crucial, domestic talent is priceless."
It is unfair for home-grown talent to lose out to overseas talent in research funding, housing and so on, Wang says.
When China was relatively weak in scientific research, overseas talent was a good source of advanced research methods and international ideas. But now the gap with other nations is narrowing. Even though overseas returnees with language skills and an international vision can make scientific breakthroughs, not all foreign students are like this.
Instead, domestic and overseas talents should be treated equally, and the country should establish an merit-based academic appraisal system to create a fair and competitive environment for all scholars. The Paper reports that talent evaluation is a way of judging a person’s all-around qualities, and the most important criterion is whether talents have actual scientific research achievements.
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