China’s path to modernization has, over the centuries, passed through my hometown

In 1957, Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, a Chinese graduate of the University of Chicago, He won the Nobel Prize because he proposed to do so in a way that separates the left and the right when some basic particles are damaged. They were the first Chinese winners. When he spoke at the Nobel banquet, Yang stated this the prize was first awarded in 1901, In the same year as the Boxer Protocol. “While I’m here today and I’m talking about these, I’m aware of the fact that I’m a product of both Chinese and Western cultures, in harmony and conflict, in more ways than one,” he said.

Yang became a citizen of the United States in 1964 and moved to Stony Brook University in Long Island in 1966, the founding director of the Institute for Theory of Physics, which later took his name. When relations between the United States and China began to unravel, Yang visited his homeland in 1971 — his first trip in a quarter of a century. It changed a lot. His father’s health was failing. The Cultural Revolution was in full swing, and Western science and Chinese tradition were considered heresy. Many of Yang’s former colleagues, including Huang and Deng, were persecuted and forced to work hard. The Nobel laureate, on the other hand, was received as a foreign authority. He met with top officials of the Chinese government and proclaimed the importance of basic research.

In the following years, Yang regularly visited China. His travels initially attracted the attention of the FBI he has seen suspicious exchanges with Chinese scientists. But by the late 1970s, enemies had dwindled. Mao Zedong was dead. The Cultural Revolution was over. Beijing adopted reforms and opening-up policies. Chinese students could go abroad to study. Yang funded support for Chinese scholars to come to the U.S. and for international experts to attend Chinese conferences, where he helped create new research centers. When Deng Jiaxian died in 1986, Yang wrote an emotion praise for his friend, who devoted his life to China’s nuclear defense. It ended with a 1906 song that was one of his father’s favorites: “[T]Chinese sons, they hold the sky with one hand … Crimson never spoils the blood that flows from the shed blood into the sand. ”

Yang Stony retired from Brook in 1999 and a few years later returned to China to teach physics at Tsinghua in the first grade. In 2015, he he renounced U.S. citizenship and became a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. In an attempt to remember his father, Yang recounted the former the decision to emigrate. He wrote, “I know that until his last days, in a corner of his heart, my father never forgave me for abandoning my homeland.”

In 2007, at the age of 85, Yang stayed in our hometown in the fall and gave a lecture at my university. My roommate and I had been waiting outside the place before, getting our precious seats in the packed auditorium. He took the stage with a round of applause and gave a presentation in English about his work as a Nobel laureate. I was a little surprised by his language choices. One of my roommates murmured, wondering if Yang was very good at speaking his mother tongue. We listened intently however, grateful to be in the same room as the great scientist.

A college junior and physics student, I was preparing to present at a graduate school in the US. They created me thinking that the best Chinese would leave China. Two years after hearing Yang personally, I also enrolled at the University of Chicago. I did my PhD in 2015 and stayed in the US for postdoctoral research.

A few months before saying goodbye to my hometown, the central government launched a major foreign procurement program Thousand Talent Plan, to encourage scientists and technology entrepreneurs to live in China with the promise of generous personal compensation and solid funding for research. Over the decade, a score for similar programs has emerged. Some, like Mila Talent, have the support of the central government. Others are funded by local councils.

Beijing’s aggressive pursuit of talent trained abroad is an indicator of the country’s new wealth and technological ambition. While most of these programs are not just for people of Chinese descent, the promotional materials attract traditional national sentiments and call for the Chinese diaspora to come home. The red and thick Chinese characters were titled on the website of the Thousand Talent Plan: “Mother needs you. Homeland welcomes you. Homeland puts hope in you.”

Today, however, website not available. Since 2020, references to the Thousand Talents Plan have been largely made disappeared From the Chinese internet. Although the program continues, its name is censored in search engines and banned in official Chinese documents. Since the last years of the Obama administration, the Chinese government’s overseas recruitment has undergone an in-depth study of U.S. law enforcement. In 2018, it was launched by the Department of Justice China Initiative with the aim of combating economic espionage by focusing on academic exchange between the two countries. The U.S. government has also put in several restrictions for Chinese students, shortening visas and denying access to facilities in “sensitive” disciplines.

There are problems with illegal behavior in Chinese talent programs. Earlier this year, a chemist associated with Thousands of Talents was convicted in Tennessee stealing trade secrets Liners for BPA-free beverage containers. Ohio Hospital Researcher ordered guilty stealing designs to obtain the exosomal isolation used in medical diagnosis. Some U.S. scientists did not provide additional revenue from China in federal funding proposals or tax returns. These are all cases of individual greed or negligence. However, the FBI “The Chinese threatWhich demands a “whole society” response.

The Biden administration is reportedly considering changes to the China Initiative, which has been criticized by many scientific associations and civil rights groups for their “racial profiles”. But no official call has been made. New cases have been opened under Biden’s command; restrictions on Chinese students remain in effect.

Seen from China, US-imposed sanctions, lawsuits and export controls seem to be a continuation of foreign “harassment”. What has changed in the last 120 years is the situation in China. Now it is not a destroyed empire, but it is a rising superpower. Leaders in both countries use similar techno-nationalist language to describe science as a tool for greatness and scientists as a strategic asset in geopolitics. Both governments are making military use of technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

“We’re not looking for conflict, but we support tough competition,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at the Alaska summit. Yang Jiechi responded by arguing that past clashes between the two countries have only affected the US, while China has moved forward.

A large part of the Chinese public likes to compete against the US. Take Mao’s famous saying, “Those who are left behind will be beaten!” The statement came in a speech by Joseph Stalin, emphasizing the importance of industrialization for the Soviet Union. For the Chinese public, largely unaware of its origins, it is reminiscent of the recent past, when foreigners plundered weak China. When I was little, my mother often repeated the expression at home, turning the national humiliation of a century into a personal motivation for excellence. When I arrived later I began to question the underlying logic: Does competition between nations make sense? By what metric and for what purpose?