Exhibition showcases overseas returnees' achievements

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Exhibition showcases overseas returnees' achievements

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The Beijing Exhibition Hall looks like a hall of fame this week. An exhibition which ends today showcases the achievements of foreign-trained Chinese students who returned to serve the motherland over the past 26 years; and presents a long list of outstanding people in their areas of learning.

Sponsors of the exhibition are confident that the list will become even longer, as China, with its booming economy and continuing opening-up policy, is definitely a promising land for more returning overseas students to give full play to their abilities.

Impressive accomplishments

The following are a select list of research products by Chinese scientists and researchers who have studied overseas from among thousands at the show:

* Wang Ganchang, Yang Jiaxi and Chen Fangyun are the sponsors of "Project 863," which enables China to keep track of the latest developments in the world's most advanced technologies and close the gap between China and developed countries.

Overseas-trained professionals make up 72 per cent of the chief scientists involved in "Project 863," started during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000).

* Xie Jialin, Zhu Hongyuan, Chen Senyu and Xu Rongshen, all academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), worked for the success of Beijing Electron Positron Collider (BEPC), making it one of the world's most significant laboratories for high-energy physics.

Overseas-trained Chinese professionals account for 81 per cent of the CAS members, and 54 per cent of the members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

* Li Guojie and Sun Ninghuang contributed to China's first symmetric multiprocessor in the 1990s.

* Yang Huanming, who studied in Denmark, the United States and Britain, together with colleagues, accomplished 1 per cent HGP genome sequencing (terminal of p-arm on chromosome 3), identifying the gene of hereditary opalescent dentin, in 2001.

* A group of scientists and experts, including Guo Zeyu and Liu Kexin, both overseas returnees, worked for the State Ancient Civilization Research Centre and helped work out the chronological tables of Xia-Shang-Zhou dynasties (2100-256 BC) with C14 technology.

The project not only made a breakthrough in applying cutting-edge technology but also paved the way for researchers to trace the sources of Chinese civilization, analysts say.

Many medical professionals who joined in the country's fight against last year's SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic are also on the list, with some called back from their overseas studies to tackle the epidemic.

"They have left their mark on every key scientific achievement in China," says a visitor surnamed Huang.

Indeed. Their achievements involve technological breakthroughs in aerospace, information technology, biological pharmaceuticals, medical appliances, new energy and new materials with many of the accomplishments filling the vacuum left by the older generation of Chinese scientists, says Wang Xiaochu, vice-minister of personnel.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Ministry of Personnel in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sciences and Technology, as well as the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.

The organizers attribute the returnees' successes to the fact that they know well international practices, market rules and advanced managerial expertise as a result of their experience overseas. Also, they have gained experience from running high-tech enterprises founded by them in China after they returned.

Their rich knowledge about both Chinese and overseas cultures also helps expand China's exchanges and co-operations with foreign countries where they studied.

"It has been proven that the returnees are one the most precious treasures pushing forward China's modernization drive and further opening up to the outside world," Zhang Bolin, minister of personnel says.

Measures to attract more

Sources at the Ministry of Personnel reaffirm that the authorities will woo more outstanding Chinese professionals from overseas to meet the country's growing need for well-trained professionals, particularly at top levels.

Over the past years, a set of preferential policies has been formulated, including regulations governing high-tech parks and allocation of funds for returnees to start up their businesses or initiate scientific research.

At the end of last year, 110 such parks were set up across the country with more than 6,000 enterprises or firms, which attracted more than 15,000 returnees.

Total income reaped from the enterprises' technologies, trade and research achievements amounted to 32.7 billion yuan (US$3.9 billion).

The parks have become a window for returnees to learn more about their homeland, keep contract with those still studying abroad and turn their research into practical and profit-making technologies.

In recent years, the ministry allocated about 200 million yuan (US$24 million) for over 4,000 returnees to start scientific research projects and financed 3,000 others to work in the homeland.

Many provinces have followed suit by working out preferential policies of their own.

A State programme to attract more returnees back has got under way.

The country is establishing a system to evaluate senior personnel and identify priorities for top-notch professionals in the fields of high technology, finance, law, trade and administration.

A "green channel" is scheduled to be opened by authorities for some badly-needed top-notch professionals.

The government is also considering setting up a special State foundation for returnees to start research or careers, tackle the issues they might face such as housing, social security, jobs for family members and schooling of children.

To inform returnees about the homeland's latest domestic working and living conditions, a national databank has been planned by personnel authorities to offer all services they may need.

A national joint conference system co-ordinating issues of the returned overseas students has been put into operation with the help of more than 10 ministries and agencies under the central government.

The Ministry of Personnel urges local authorities to simplify approval procedures and further improve services needed by the returnees in registrations of companies and commodities inspections.

The ministry pledges that "governments at all levels will do their best to create good working conditions for them."

Policy pays off

China's policy towards returned overseas students since 1979 has paid off.

The policy makes it clear that the country "supports students to study abroad, encourages them to come back" and guarantees their "freedom of coming back and leaving."

A total of 700,200 Chinese studied in more than 10 countries and regions between 1978 and 2003, and 172,800 returned after graduation, according to the latest official statistics.

Among those staying abroad, 356,600 have not finished their studies or research, the ministry says.

In 2003 alone, the number of returned students hit 20,100, an annual record high since 1978 when China restarted student exchanges with foreign countries.

The number of returned overseas students has, since 2000, increased by 30 per cent in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and Liaoning and Shandong provinces.

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