China's Brain Drain

I know people here are probably getting very sick of me mentioning the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, and possibly think I'm getting a commission of kickback for promoting it, but it talks about this.

This article belies a couple of things. Chinese students used to nearly all study abroad, at least the ones who were any good, and now that is rapidly diminishing as China scrambles to put together world class universities of their own. They are trying to emulate the best practices of universities worldwide and trying to out-do them and give their best and brightest their education at home. They are also seeding people at universities worldwide to help them capture some of those practices and education to come back and spearhead this. China has always had the "brain drain", because until recently they HAD to send their people abroad to get any decent education, and then after that, the only place for them to get good employment was overseas (and they often send the money home to their families). What is changing is how many people actually ARE returning home and starting businesses and taking up university positions in China.

On a more sinister note, China has long taken advantage of their overseas network of ex-pats, and basically implored them to send back whatever useful info they could, such as technical info from their employers or whatever they can get their hands on, preferably without getting nailed for espionage. In some cases, the ex-pat's families back in China may be threatened or coerced to encourage the ex-pat to comply. This is the so-called "Thousand Grains of Sand". In some cases, the ex-pats do get nailed for espionage or other things, such as the guy who was trying to send F-16 engines to China. In that case, China neatly washes their hands of the situation and deny the guy was working for them.

I am certainly not meaning to bash on China here, particularly the people, but the Chinese government needs to think about a couple of things. Their disregard for intellectual property and aggressive technical espionage aren't making them any friends, and pissing off their trading partners. I'm sure a lot of restrictions in place now would come down if people weren't afraid China might use the technologies they gain to harm them or run them out of business.

Moreover, this article also clearly validates another one of Friedman's points--that governments need to take care of their people. If China wants people to come back, they are going to have to implement policies that attract people. For the US's part, we have been becoming more and more dependant on these foreign ex-pats as our own science and engineering graduation rates decline. We too will have to encourage and attract the best and brightest to continue to come here to learn, teach and work. I've heard many valid complaints that our security concerns since 9/11 have made some people feel unwelcome and the bureaucracy very discouraging for people we NEED to let in.

While we are on the topic, and talking about how reform and treating your people well keeps your best and brightest, let's talk Russia. I am deeply disappointed in Russia and frankly quite surprised at their total lack of progress since the end of the Cold War. This is a society where chess is a big time sport and smart people are well respected. Teachers and professors are well thought of.

The Cold War ended, it looked like we were making progress and developing some mutual trust. We both face major problems from Islamic radical terrorists. Yet, now that oil prices have gone back up and put money back into their economy, their level of freedom and reforms have eroded. I was quite shocked that someone didn't set up some huge engineering firms or software development companies in Russia since the Cold War ended, but that didn't happen. Yeah, they have some (legit) nuclear technology exports, and do collaborative work on aerospace projects and such, but it looks like rising oil prices have stifled the rise of a white collar, free and prosperous Russia. As of now, about the only things people buy from the Russians are oil, their weapons, and their nuclear reactors (in that order of preference).

How is Russia spending the revenues they are getting off oil taxes (and, well, all the other money they get from oil)? They are rearming their military. I recently saw they are buying 50 new Topol-M ICBMs, 50 jet bombers, and 31 warships. They are also modernizing 40 tank, 97 infantry and 50 parachute battalions. Did they not get it when we didn't nuke them from 1991 to now that we weren't going to? There was an extensive period of time when Russia had effectively NO nuclear deterrence. There was a period of time when all of their submarines were stood down (after the Kursk incident), and their land based early warning system was totally hosed until quite recently. They were wide open if that were our true intention.

So what does this rearmament mean? Don't they get it that they could invest that money into their infrastructure and be a real world class power economically and technologically, and only a second rate (at best) military power?