Dan Murphy is executive director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at the Harvard Kennedy School where he works in support of the Center’s mission. In this Opinion Article, published on May 25, 2023, Dan suggests that International scientific collaborations can bring numerous benefits, including the exchange of knowledge, expertise, and resources, leading to advancements in research and technology. Chinese scientists have made significant contributions to various scientific fields and have a wealth of expertise to offer.
The Chinese Communist Party has accomplished something rare in U.S. politics these days: uniting Democrats and Republicans around a common enemy. Unfortunately, frenzied concern about Chinese influence threatens America’s ability to attract the top talent it needs to maintain global leadership in science and higher education.
The damage caused by the Department of Justice’s now-disbanded China Initiative still reverberates. Designed to counter economic espionage and national security threats from China, it resulted — in some cases — in researchers and academics of Chinese descent being placed under house arrest or taken away in handcuffs on charges of hiding ties to China, cases that ended in acquittal or were later dropped.
Googling on this subject has yielded many other articles on why the US needs to change her perspective on Chinese Scientists, and the list goes on and on.
- Abandoning the US, More Scientists Go to China by David J. Bier of the Cato Institute https://www.cato.org/blog/abandoning-us-more-scientists-go-china
- China Initiative’s shadow looms large for US scientists, Anti-Asian scrutiny has only intensified since the controversial programme ended one year ago, researchers say. Nature Publication, Feb, 27, 2023.
- How U.S.-China Tensions Have Hurt American Science, December 9, 2022. Big Data China.
- U.S. science no longer leads the world. Here’s how top advisers say the nation should respond (Science.org). The United States trailed China in contributing to the growth in global research spending over the past 2 decades. China 29%; United States 23%; South Korea & Japan 9%; Other Asia 7%; Other 14%; European Union 17%; Contribution to global R&D growth (GRAPHIC) K. FRANKLIN/SCIENCE; (DATA) THE STATE OF U.S. SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING 2022/NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION